


All the Difference

by KayCee1951



Category: The Dukes of Hazzard (TV)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Complete, F/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:27:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 27,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29354205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KayCee1951/pseuds/KayCee1951
Summary: Taking back your life is not easy when you're trapped in a seemingly endless cycle, making the same mistakes over and over. Not without help, anyway.
Relationships: Daisy Duke/Enos Strate





	1. Roads

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WENN9366](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WENN9366/gifts).



> This story begins just after the end of Season 7 Episode 16: "Enos and Daisy's Wedding"

_“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I–  
I took the one less traveled by...”_

Robert Frost

* * *

****

**_Saturday Evening, February 2, 1985_ **

Daisy stuck her hand into the soapy water, pulled out another supper plate, and stared idly out the window. Much as she had done with the previous three plates, she swirled the sponge on the surface over and over and over.

“You’re gonna scrub them flowers right off the plate if you keep that up,” Bo snickered over her shoulder.

Daisy said nothing, giving him an elbow gently in his midsection instead, then flicked a handful of soap at him. Bo ducked just in time.

“Hah! Missed!” he said triumphantly.

“Bo.” Luke peeked his head around the corner. “Why are you wastin’ time pesterin’ Daisy? The girls are waitin’ for us at the Boar’s Nest.”

“You two are hopeless,” Daisy scolded. “You don’t even have the decency to pick those girls up for Saturday night dates?”

It wasn’t like Daisy had ever been that close to her _almost_ bridesmaids. But seriously? They deserved better than this.

“For your information,” Luke chided, “they had stuff to do after, well…they had things to do and _asked_ us to meet um at the Boar’s Nest instead of pickin’ um up.”

“Yeah, so there,” Bo said.

Four hours had passed since Daisy and Enos didn’t get hitched. At supper, Bo and Luke acted as if they had been the ones to ‘dodge the bullet’ even if Boss _had_ threatened to make them all pay for the wedding preparations. Of course, Enos wouldn’t have any of it and offered to pay all of the cost himself, even if it took him till the end of time. That was only because Enos was…well, Enos. However, in Bo and Luke’s minds, it was worth every penny, and they insisted on sharing the cost. She hadn’t protested – that would have just egged them on. She had put on the same happy-go-lucky face that everyone expected, but the day had taken more out of her than she would ever admit to either of her cousins. She was weary-worn and not much up to arguing the pros and cons of _NOT_ marrying Enos Strate.

Daisy finished drying the last of the utensils just as the boys sped out of the drive. Now that the likelihood of playing the same old broken record had left in a cloud of orange dust, she joined Jesse on the front porch. The sun was well below the trees and would dip below the horizon in about ten minutes. The clouds were lit with brilliant hot pinks and blazing tangerines that cast a warm glow over the yard. Saturday would turn into Sunday in less than six hours, and Daisy still hadn’t packed up her Aunt Lavinia’s wedding dress.

She was happy to be left with only her Uncle Jesse for company tonight. At least, _he_ wasn’t humming _Beer Barrel Polka_ at the supper table like the boys, or while helping to clean up, or while getting ready for their meaningless dates. She was both grateful and disappointed that Uncle Jesse didn’t have any sage words of wisdom for her. Finally able to read his paper, he simply remarked on the fact that there would be six more weeks of winter to look forward to.

***

In her room upstairs, Daisy began to pack the wedding dress she’d worn for barely an hour. Probably not unusual for most brides, but then, most brides change out of their wedding gowns and into their going-away outfits – _after_ they’re married – because they _are_ married. ~~~~

The dress lay draped, with unfulfilled promise, over the white brocade pillow on her bed. Leaning on the pineapple finial of the footboard, she stared at the gown for some time. It was fully dark outside, with no moon. The soft light from the lamp on her nightstand made the lace seem more delicate. She sat on the edge of the bed and sighed. _‘Better to rip off the band-aid all at once.’_

Reaching her fingers into the tiny pocket in the heart of the bodice, she felt it. Tied with a hank of blue ribbon was the ring that matched the one Enos was supposed to put on her finger. There had been no question for either of them on the choice. They had perused several trays on Friday afternoon, but time was of the essence, and as soon as Mr. Caulder brought out that particular black velvet lined tray, they’d both said at once, “Those.”

She hadn’t seen Enos since the wedding that didn’t happen. He’d left the Boar’s Nest, where the guests were chowing down on Lulu’s wedding buffet, with Jesse and the boys to take back their fancy suits. Then he went to the clinic to get some relief for the hives. He’d looked so miserable and uncomfortable when they left. She called the boarding house to check on him about an hour before supper, but he wasn’t there. When she tracked down Cletus, he told her Enos had gone to the farm to visit his folks. Judy and Frank weren’t at the Boar’s Nest when she walked through in her wedding dress – no doubt absent because they still didn’t consider Daisy as wife material – at least not for their nephew. They must be even happier than Bo and Luke right now.

Slowly untying the ribbon that bound the gold and silver band to the dress, she put it back into the ring box. She’d only found the tiny pocket by accident. Uncle Jesse hadn’t mentioned it, and Aunt Lavinia hadn’t been there to tell her about it. They’d had a chance before Lavinia passed to share only a few secrets.

From the window of her room, only stars could be seen in the clear winter sky. She watched them twinkle and wished for a shooting star. With the wedding dress carefully folded into the box and the veil just as lovingly added after it, a finality came with closing the lid – a dropped stitch, an unraveling thread. 

***

[…da da _dum_ pa-dum-pa-dum…da da _dum_ pa-dum-pa-dum, youuuuuu….]

_Damnit!_

2:30 in the morning and Daisy couldn’t get the tune out of her head. If her brain could just remember all the words, she might get some peace. But the only part that kept thrumming over and over and over for the past hour was the damned chorus. Now she had a whale of a headache.

Reaching over to open the drawer of the nightstand, she swore under her breath a word she would never utter around her uncle. Everything else was in that blankety-blank drawer except the aspirin. Still a moonless night, the hallway to the bathroom was dark, and she stubbed her toe on the linen closet about halfway there—another opportunity to swear silently. Today was starting out just like yesterday had. At this rate, her entire left foot would be black and blue by the time they left for church. At least the pain had driven the song from her mind. Now she was just wide awake at 3:00 am. Too much time to think. She just wanted to sleep and not have to think.

The house was so quiet, she could hear herself breathing and her soft footfalls as she padded lightly back to her room. At least her eyes had adjusted to the dark, so she was able to avoid the big heavy linen cabinet ‘ _that had been in the same place for as long as she could remember for crying out loud_.’

She shivered. Now, on top of everything else, she was cold. Crawling back under the covers, she spotted the outline of a gray-blue frock hanging on the wardrobe. It was the one with lace and ruffles and tiny pink roses that she had worn Saturday. Her wedding day. The one that covered her knees, her arms down to her wrists, and the midriff dipping below her cleavage in the front. In her sleep-deprived brain, she mused, ‘ _Wholesome, yet sexy.’_

With all the concern she’d had properly packing the wedding gown back in its box, she must have forgotten to put the blue dress back in the wardrobe. It sent her on a journey through yesterday.

***

_ Saturday Morning, February 2, 1985 _

_When she appeared in the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, Bo had been the first to voice his opinion, as usual. “Ya’ know, Daisy, it might not be so bad.”_

_“What might not be so bad?”_

_“Marryin’ Enos.”_

_“And what’s so bad about marryin’ Enos?”_

_“Well, for one thing, you don’t love him.”_

_“I told you. I do love him.”_

_“No,” Luke interrupted, “You said you have a ‘genuine affection’ for him. Like we said Friday, ain’t the same thing. And that stuff about learnin’ to love somebody after you get married. That’s what people did back when they didn’t have options. Like in the old days when men ordered brides outta the Sears and Roebuck catalog.”_

_“Yeah, Daisy,” Bo chimed in, “You got options.”_

_“You two don’t understand anything. And I thought you said it ain’t gonna be so bad marryin’ Enos, Bo.”_

_“Oh, I mean you can get one of them annulments. As long as you don’t––”_

_“What are you two talkin’ about? When I marry Enos, it’s gonna be for better or worse, for richer or poorer ‘til death do us part.”_

_“You mean, you’d go through with the ceremony and the wedding night and everyth––” Bo was shocked._

_And Daisy was beside herself. She put her fists on her hips and gave them a warning stare. “Look. There’s gonna be a weddin’ today. If ya’ll can’t get your head around this and be there for me and Enos, then just don’t bother showin’ up at all. I’ll make some excuse to Enos why his best friends refused to stand up with him.”_

_Climbing back up the stairs, she stopped at the top step to listen in on the conversation still going on in the kitchen, even though they were trying to keep their voices low._

_“Oh, that was real tactful.” (That was Luke.)_

_“Well, it needed to be said, and it didn’t look like you were gonna say anything.” (Bo.)_

_(Luke) “I was tryin’ to ease into it, not go in with both guns blazin’. Now she’s gonna dig in like a badger_ _. The more we tell her she shouldn't do somethin’, the more she’s gonna wanna do it just to show us we’re not the boss of her.”_

_Daisy had grabbed the wedding dress and her shoebox off the bed and was back downstairs, headed for the door when she heard Uncle Jesse voice. “What’s all the ruckus about? It ain’t even time to milk Maudine yet. And where’s Daisy?”_

_Letting the front door snap shut behind her, she didn’t hear Bo’s or Luke’s answer._

_On the drive into Hazzard, she tried to quell vexations she shouldn’t have to deal with on her wedding day._

_*_

_The place where they were all renting their wedding duds from, except for her wedding gown, was part of the dry-cleaning shop, something not much in demand nowadays except for cleaning chenille bedspreads and leisure suits, both of which had gone out of style._

_She was supposed to meet Patsy and Cindy, her spur of the moment bridesmaids, there. They weren’t her best friends, and younger than Daisy, but would do in a pinch. This wedding had to go on whether it was the way she would have wanted it to happen or not. Neither she nor Enos had a choice, so she had told herself to ‘put her big girl panties on and just get over it.’ She wasn’t letting Enos go to jail for something he didn’t do. Not if it was in her power to prevent it, and that was the end of it._

_Why was everybody so dead set against it, anyway? It’s not like she was marrying an ax murderer or a wife-beater or a drunk. She was marrying Enos Strate, the most honest, caring, kindest, and gentlest soul that ever walked the earth._

_“Hey, Daisy. You okay?” It was Cindy, the girl Luke was sort-of dating._

_“Yeah, fine. You and Patsy picked out your dresses yet? Did they have anything in yellow?”_

_“Sorry, Daisy,” Patsy said, “All they had in our size at the last minute was light pink. But I think they’re kind of pretty, don’t you?” She held up the dress for Daisy to look at._

_“It’s real pretty,” she said, without a lot of enthusiasm. “They should go with the flowers Lulu picked out. She said we would just go with white rose bouquets, ‘cause they’ll match anything.”_

_“Then, we all better get on over to the beauty parlor,” Cindy reminded them. “Silvy’s waitin’. She’s openin’ up on a Saturday ‘specially for us. Said she wouldn’t miss doin’ your hair for this weddin’ unless she fell down a well or somethin’.”_

_Patsy snapped her fingers in front of Daisy, since she seemed to be staring out into space. “Earth to Daisy? You sure you wanna go through with this, hon?”_

_Snapping back, Daisy declared, “Of course, I’m sure. Now let’s go get gorgeous.”_

_She also wanted to be gone before Bo, Luke, and Uncle Jesse showed up to collect their tuxes. She knew that Enos had picked his up last night. Admiring the suit of black tails with a gray vest on the headless mannequin in the window, she imagined how handsome Enos was going to look in it._

*

_It was about 11:30 am when Daisy, Patsy and Cindy showed up at the Boar’s Nest. Lulu caught her on the way to Boss’s office and asked if they could talk a little before she got dressed for the ceremony._

_“Sure Lulu, I’ll just make sure Aunt Lavinia’s dress gets hung up proper, and then I’ll be right back out.”_

_“Oh, that dress takes me back. I remember Lavinia wearin’ it like it was yesterday. She looked absolutely radiant standin’ next to Jesse. Just makes my heart cry that she can’t be here to see this day. She wanted to you know.” Lulu was starting to tear up and reached for her hanky._

_“I know Lulu, I wish she was here too. Maybe she could help…”_

_“Help with what, sweetie? If there’s somethin’ botherin’ you or you got somethin’ you want to talk about, I’m not your dear departed aunt, but I’d do whatever I could.”_

_“I know, Lulu. And I appreciate it, I truly do. But it’s not somethin’…I just wish she was here, that’s all.”_

_“Well, I’m sure she’s here in spirit, darlin’.”_

_“I know she is. But I have to go get dressed now, so I’ll see you after the ceremony.” Lulu started to turn but Daisy stopped her. “And Lulu, thank you so much for all you’ve done, with the wedding, gettin’ everything put together and all. I can’t thank you enough, and I know Enos feels the same way.”_

_“Well, don’t you worry about it, sweet girl.” She started getting weepy again. “You just go get ready while I go and have a good cry.”_

_Daisy hugged her tightly and ran off to the dressing room before she got teary-eyed herself and made her mascara run._

_*_

_Before she could even think about changing, Uncle Jesse knocked on the door and asked if he could come in._

_“Of course, Uncle Jesse. I’m still decent.”_

_He’d barely been able to tell her about Enos leaving the ring at the boarding house in his other pants before the Deputy Attorney General showed up, followed by Enos, Rosco, and Boss Hogg. He accused them of committing fraud by getting married so she couldn’t be forced to testify against Enos and demanded, based on an anonymous tip, that Boss issue a warrant to search Enos’s room for the stolen money._

_And that’s when Enos called off the wedding because he thought “maybe the reason you wanted to marry up with me was like he said, to save me from goin’ to jail. Well, maybe it’s true and maybe it ain’t. But folks might think that way.”*_

_And after everything she’d done to convince him otherwise._

_He was then arrested and locked up when the DAG, Boss, and Rosco found the money those crooks had planted in his room._

_She went down to the cell and asked him for the second time to marry her through the bars that separated them. “Enos. Let’s get married. Right here. Right now.”*_

_But he refused. “I’m not gonna ruin your life and that’s all there is to it.”*_

_That man was impossible, and she told him so before storming up to the Sheriff’s office in frustration. Uncle Jesse, witness to the whole thing, had followed close behind her._

_She plopped into Enos’s chair and laid her head on his desk, mumbling to herself about how Enos was the most stubborn man she ever met and how he’d rather rot in jail, or worse, than marry her. She wasn’t making any sense, and she knew it. But damn it all anyway – she was mad._

_So mad, she didn’t pay any attention to the fact that Rosco, Boss, and the DAG were in the room. They passed the next twenty-five minutes in a standoff, Daisy daring the three of them to speak to her unless it was an apology._

_Then, Lulu arrived to find out what the delay was. “Everybody’s waitin’ at the Boar’s Nest. And all that food’s gonna go to waste if we don’t start the ceremony soon.”_

_“Well, lambikins, we just better go on back over there and make sure those vittles are still fit to eat before the weddin’ guests try um.”_

_“J. D. I warned you about castin’ aspersions on my cookin’.”_

_“Of course, I wouldn’t do that. But you said yourself it’s gonna go to waste. And it don’t look like the ceremony’s gonna start soon, or at all, Ahem. So we better just go over there and let them guests know the weddin’s been canceled.”_

_“Canceled. What do you mean canceled? Because Enos left the ring in his other pants? So did you J.D.”_

_“I know, sugar lump, but this weddin’s gonna be canceled on accounta’ the groom’s downstairs behind bars.”_

_“Behind bars! J.D. What are you talkin’ about?”_

_“Welllll––” Boss started to explain but was interrupted when Bo and Luke burst through the door with the stolen money and the real crooks hogtied._

_Luke declared, “You can let Enos out now, Rosco. We got the guys who really stole that money right here.”_

***

She was back in her bed under the covers now, at 4:00 am, still wondering about why her Saturday frock was hanging on the wardrobe instead of in it. But she spotted something else in the dimness. The dress box containing Aunt Lavinia’s gown was still on the chair in the corner. But…she’d returned it to Uncle Jesse last night. She had gone downstairs and put it into his hands, thanking him for offering such a precious treasure to her with the promise she would wear it for real someday. Was she that out of it last night that she’d imagined doing it? Had she been dreaming?

Heaving a deep sigh, she closed her eyes and tried to think of something else, something constructive – like ways to cure hives.

***

The soft wrapping on her door and Uncle Jesse’s voice woke her. ‘ _Lord have mercy. Had she overslept?’_ The clock on the nightstand read 8:36. It was Sunday. They wouldn’t need to leave for church until 11:00.

Struggling to focus her sleep crusted, bloodshot eyes, she cracked open her bedroom door and asked, “Uncle Jesse? Is anything wrong?”

She couldn’t imagine a scenario where her uncle, or cousins for that matter, would wake her before 9:30 on a Sunday morning. Especially this particular Sunday morning.

“Depends, Daisy. With everything you got to do today, we figured you’d be up and at um by the time Maudine got milked.”

“Why would I––?”

“We…me and Bo and Luke…we thought maybe you was havin’ second thoughts about goin’ through with this.”

“Goin’ through with what – goin’ to church? Uncle Jesse, you’re not makin’ any sense.”

Her uncle knitted his eyebrows and his whiskers into a worried frown. “Bo! Luke! I think ya’ll should git up here.”

From downstairs, Bo yelled up, “Daisy change her mind?”

“Stop askin’ questions and git on up here.”

“Uncle Jesse,” Daisy said, now more anxious than annoyed at being woken up early. “Tell me right now what’s goin’ on. You’re startin’ to scare me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * Direct quotes from Season 7, Episode 16 - "Enos and Daisy's Wedding"


	2. Learning the Rules

**Balladeer:** I don’t know about ya’ll, but I think somethin’ weird’s goin’ on in Hazzard.

* * *

_“A breeze discovered my open book_

_And began to flutter the leaves to look.”_

Robert Frost

* * *

“Daisy, you feelin’ alright?” Jesse asked. The concern on his face hadn’t diminished. If anything, it had intensified.

“I had a headache earlier, but it’s gone now.”

“Don’t look like you got much sleep. Y’know, I think Enos would understand if you’re feelin’ poorly.”

“Understand what, Uncle Jesse? I thought this all got settled yesterday when we postponed the wedding.”

“Postponed…?”

“Well, we didn’t call it off if that’s what ya’ll were hopin’ for.”

Bo had found Luke, and they were both bounding up the stairs.

“Somethin’ wrong with Daisy, Uncle Jesse?” Luke asked.

“I’m standin’ right here,” Daisy said with no small measure of annoyance. “And no, there’s nothin’ wrong with Daisy. Uncle Jesse on the other hand...”

“You don’t look so good.” Bo said.

“Gee, thanks. Just what a girl wants to hear.”

“I mean––”

Jesse held up his hand. “Never mind that. Daisy, you never said nothin’ last night about postponin’ the weddin’.”

“Uncle Jesse. You were right there. You all were. Enos got the hives, and we postponed the wedding til he––”

“Hives!” Bo cackled. “Who gets the hives on their wedding day?”

Luke shrugged and said matter-of-factly, “Well, it is Enos.” He looked back at Daisy. “So, when did this happen? This ‘postponement.’”

“Wait,” Daisy said, much more alert now. “Is this some sort of early April Fool’s joke? ‘Cause if it is, it’s not funny.”

“If it is, the joke’s on us,” Luke said, “’cause we don’t know what the Sam Hill you’re talkin’ about.”

“Daisy,” Jesse tried to keep his voice calm. “I know brides get kind of jittery on their weddin’ day––”

“More like squirrely,” Bo said.

“You’re the one bein’ squirrely. If ya’ll don’t stop this foolin’ around right now, I’m fixin’ to show you some jitters...” Daisy assumed the posture of a street punk spoiling for a fight.

“Alright, now everybody just needs to calm down!” Jesse commanded. “Somethin’s gone catawampus here, and we gotta straighten it out.”

“But don’tcha see, Uncle Jesse,” Bo said, “Daisy’s actin’ this way ‘cause she knows what she’s about to do ain’t the right thing to do.”

“Bo,” Luke said, “Uncle Jesse’s right. Let’s just all settle down and see if we can figure this thing out.”

Daisy heard all this from the other side of the door. While they were arguing over what to do, she had closed it and slid onto the floor with her back against it.

“Daisy,” Jesse said cautiously from the other side. “Now Daisy, we didn’t mean to upsetcha. Did we boys?”

“No,” they both assured her.

She gave no response. How could she? They were all talking nonsense and acting like she was the one who was addlepated. _Was she going crazy?_ She didn’t feel crazy. _How does crazy feel, anyway?_

It was then she spotted it…Lavinia’s wedding gown hanging down the side of the wardrobe like a champaign colored waterfall just as she had left it Friday night.

***

[…da da _dum_ pa-dum-pa-dum…da da _dum_ pa-dum-pa-dum, youuuuuu….]

Daisy awoke with a start and a headache. Man, what a dream. She reached over to open the drawer of her nightstand for the aspirin and noticed the time on the old double bell alarm clock said 6:00 am. If she could get rid of this headache, she could sleep another three and a half hours.

 _No frickin’ aspirin. Everything else in that blankety_ ––

Then she saw it.

 _“Ain’t no way,”_ she thought. _“I’m still asleep.”_

***

The seventh or eighth iteration ( _she had lost count_ ) made Daisy think she had to let the dream run its full course before she could wake up. The strange thing was that the dream never started out _exactly_ the same way or at _precisely_ the same time. There were constants, however. She always looked at the clock, there was never any aspirin in the drawer, she stubbed her toe on something ( _apparently it didn’t matter what_ ), that damned song felt like a sledgehammer pounding her brain ( _probably the reason for the headache_ ), and she was always cold. No, that wasn’t it. She always shivered.

And it always ended ( _at least so far_ ) with her family thinking she was crazy and wondering if they were right.

This time, when Daisy awoke at 5:43 am, she decided to just run with it to see what happened. If she couldn’t change the way it started ( _and she had tried_ ), maybe she could change the way it ended – it might be the only way she would ever wake up for real.

Skipping the part about opening the drawer to the nightstand ( _useless effort_ \- _no damned aspirin_ ), wriggled out from under the warm covers and headed to the bathroom. Daisy closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look at the blue dress hanging on the front of the wardrobe or the lacy gown hanging down its side. She wasn’t ready for that yet.

Yep! She banged her toe on the leg of the bed.

***

[…da da _dum_ pa-dum-pa-dum…da da _dum_ pa-dum-pa-dum, youuuuuu….]

_Crap!_

Okay, so she had to force herself to look at the wardrobe and the garments hanging from it. She’d heard that dreams are the way the brain works through problems. _No big deal_. It was part of the illusion. If she could get over this part, she could live her wedding day over again.

Then, she could move on.

And wake up.

***

The first time she tried to relive the day was the oddest experience she’d ever had, stranger even than finding a little alien in the back seat of the General.*

Pretending _not_ to already know how someone would respond to a particular phrase or string of words or action was tricky. She had to go through the motions of: picking up the bridesmaids and their pink dresses, sitting in the beauty salon listening to Silvy and Patsy and Cindy talk about how they never thought they’d see this day, the trip down memory lane with Lulu, the first time Enos called off the wedding, the second time he refused to marry her because he wouldn’t ruin her life, the boys catching the real crooks, Enos being free and then him calling off the wedding for the third time because of the hives…

It was hard. No wonder she woke up every morning with a headache.

By the twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth time, she was tired and frustrated. _There must be some other way than to do the same thing repeatedly without change._

She decided to experiment. _Funny how the mind works. This wasn’t just the weirdest dream she’d ever had; it was also the longest and most complex._

Once, she skipped the hair appointment and went straight to the Boar’s Nest. Another time she avoided talking to Lulu, then surreptitiously supplied Boss with all the ham and cheese sandwiches he could stuff in his pockets ( _that was just for fun_ ). The end result was the same – she didn’t get married and woke up every morning on her wedding day. Maybe it was the clothes. She tried wearing different outfits ( _although she really liked that gray-blue dress, it was his favorite_ ). No one seemed to notice. At least, not until she showed up at the Boar’s Nest in her spaghetti strap tank top and Daisy Dukes. That was just plain humiliating.

The look on Enos’s face was priceless, though. She never knew cheeks could actually get that red. _If only that part could carryover_ …But Daisy was the only one to remember what she wore or that mixture of embarrassed confusion and lustful anticipation on Enos’s face come morning.

By replay number thirty-five ( _she had started keeping track_ ), she decided that little changes weren’t going to be enough.

She would have to up her game.

***

Well, refusing to come out of her room and sleeping all day wasn’t going to work. Luke or Bo broke down the door. Sneaking out early and trying to drive out of the county didn’t work, either. Rosco in Hazzard #1, or Bo and Luke in the General, or Uncle Jesse, or Cooter were at the county line of whatever road she tried to take. She even drove up into the hills into old ridge-runner country only to end up running from the Beaudrys.**

So. There were rules to this game. She couldn’t stay in her room, and she couldn’t leave Hazzard County.

Daisy could work with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> References:
> 
> * From Season 7, Episode 15 - "Strange Visitor to Hazzard"
> 
> ** From Season 5, Episode 22, "Daisy's Shotgun Wedding"


	3. A Fine Kettle of Fish

**Balladeer:** _“Everybody was centerin’ in on the weddin’ nobody wanted, ‘cept Enos, an’ he wuddin’ too sure. Wuddin’ too bright neither.”*_

 **Daisy:** “Keep your opinions to yourself, or I’ll give you bright – as in stars.”

* * *

_“Run the rattling pages o’er;  
Scatter poems on the floor;  
Turn the poet out the door.”_

Robert Frost

* * *

Daisy hadn’t been able to change the outcome and wake up to a new day. She thought, ‘ _Maybe it was something someone else had to do or change. If this was a game of cards, she’d try to figure out what the other players were thinking.’_

Dressed in her gray-blue frock, with the pink roses, Daisy went downstairs, striving to be as nonchalant as she could, thinking, _‘There’s only one way to find out.’_

The kitchen was like an undertaker’s waiting room, with the bereaved family all sitting around in mourning. After forty-three do-overs, this script was getting stale. _Was it this dirge-like the first time, on the actual wedding day, or had she not noticed until now?_ Since she hadn’t found a way to make them stop their moaning and groaning, she decided to ignore their surly attitudes, infuriating as that was. _She’d bet a week’s tips that she’d done that the first time._ She couldn’t remember.

That was another thing. She hadn’t worked at the Boar’s Nest in forty-six days.

“Good morning, Uncle Jesse,” Daisy said with a smile on her face and light-hearted lilt to her voice. “Good morning, Bo…Luke. Gonna be a nice day for a wedding, don’t ya’ll think?”

“Yeah, nice day,” Luke said with all the enthusiasm of anticipating a root canal.

_Maybe she just imagined it – blowing it out of proportion. And why not? Who would blame her if they knew what was going on? But she was alone in this._

“Ya’ll won’t be late for your appointment at the dry-cleaners, will you?” she asked, reeling herself back in from…wherever.

“No, Daisy. We’ll be there on time,” Uncle Jesse said. Though not supportive, at least he sounded more sympathetic. Suddenly, she wondered if that was good or bad.

“Thanks, Uncle Jesse.” She kissed him on the forehead and went back up to get her gown and wedding heels.

In her room, Daisy reached for her Aunt Lavinia’s dress, which she had lovingly placed on a hanger that Friday night a month and a half ago ( _by the new Daisy timeline – she wasn’t sure if time was standing still for everyone else, or moving more slowly, or if everyone else was forty-four days older…_ ).

 _Sigh_ …

The floor-length gown was made of dotted Swiss lace, with no less than three layers of ruffles in a V pattern on the bodice and four layers of matching ruffles at the skirt's base. Although it had been carefully preserved the best Lavinia and Jesse had been able to afford, that hint of champaign coloring spoke volumes about the age of the garment.

From the jeweler’s box, Daisy removed Enos’s wedding ring – small gold and silver bands braided between gold outer bands keeping them held tightly together – and tied it into the little hidden pocket under the left side, just under one of the ruffles closest to her heart.

Daisy had seen the dress numerous times since her uncle had said, _“Your Aunt Lavinia had that on when I married her. She’d be right proud to have you wear it,”_ but never before that first Friday night. It had been neatly folded with tissue paper and smelled of fresh lavender sachet. A testament to Jesse’s abiding love for his wife even after she had passed so many years ago. The scent was as fresh tonight as it was when she’d first opened the lid – everything from that Friday stayed the same as it was, never-changing – like everything _before_ her wedding day.

Which is why she was sure there _had to be something about Saturday_ she was supposed to be working out. Her brain or the Universe was trying to tell her something. If she could find it and fix it, the top would stop spinning, and she could get off.

Today – scratch that – _this_ do-over day, her mission was to follow Enos around. He was the other key player in this comedy of errors.

_What was the one thing that should have happened on Saturday and didn’t? The wedding. What was the one thing that kept the wedding from going forward? The Hives. They were supposed to get married – third time’s the charm and all that…Why hadn’t she thought of it before?_

_Maybe because it took this long to figure out it wasn’t all about her!_

_Hells bells._ Not only was she talking to herself more, but she also answered herself just as often. _And why not? She was the only one who believed her!_

_Careful Daisy or the Universe might take away that stash of aspirin in the bathroom that never seems to deplete…or refill. Ugh! She was doing it again._

_Damn!_

_Stop it!_

***

Daisy sailed through the day until 2:15 pm, at which time she found herself, once again, in the parking lot behind the Boar’s Nest. Enos turned around, and for only the second time since she got stuck in this loop-ta-loop, she was genuinely taken aback by the blisters on his face. She hadn’t let the reenactment of her wedding day take her to this part since that first do-over. She remembered it word for word:

_*[“Hi, Daisy.”_

_“What happened to your face?”_

_“Hives.”]*_

She remembered gasping.

_*[“It ain’t just on my face.”_

_“On our weddin’ day?”_

_“That’s why I think I got um. Every time somethin’ good happens to me, I break out. I started scratchin’ the minute we talked about gettin’ married. And now, gettin’ ready to walk down the aisle, I––”_

_“Enos. Are you tellin’ me that marrying me is givin’ you the hives?”_

_“My system can’t take all that happiness. I…I know it sounds crazy but if just thinkin’ about it b’fore we get married breaks me out, what’s it gonna be like on our honeymoon? Or every day of my wonderful life bein’ your husband…I’d scratch myself to death, Daisy.”_

_“What are we gonna do?”_

_“Well, I’m gonna try to find some way a’ marryin’ ya and bein’ happy without the hives. Maybe between me and Doc Appleby, we can find a way a’ stoppin’ um.”_

_“It’ll take a lot of time, though.”_

_“Anything’s really good’s worth waitin’ for, Daisy.”_

_“Enos, you’re the most wonderful man in the whole world. Now, are you sure this is what you wanna do?”_

_“The way I care for you, it’s the only right thing to do right now.”_ _]*_

When they reached that part, she had a momentary notion to deviate from the original script and plan for the day and try to talk him into marrying her anyway. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t devised her arguments over and over in her mind in those hours before dawn she’d waited for Saturday to start anew.

_Twenty years and counting…How much longer a wait was too long?_

But the man was as stubborn as the day is long. Once he got some notion in his head, even _her_ feminine wiles couldn’t budge him.

So, she decided to keep with her original plan. Find a cure for the hives _before_ the wedding. Then argue. _Or after the wedding, today or tomorrow or however long it takes and then before the wedding when…sheesh._

***

Managing to get away from Lulu and the crowd at the Boar’s Nest, Daisy, still in her wedding gown, yanked the cans off Dixie’s back bumper and headed for the farm. The paper bells and garland got ripped off by the wind before she got half a mile down the road.

She wasn’t worried about damaging the dress, either. She’d already been through that. Somewhere around the fifth or seventh iteration, Cletus ran into her and spilled punch on the dress. She was in tears thinking she’d allowed something to happen to Aunt Lavinia’s gown and ended any chance of going through with the wedding that day by crying her eyes out in Boss’s office. The next morning she’d awakened to find the dress in the same condition as it was when she opened the box lid for the first time.

Thus, she discovered another rule...or at least, part of one. The dress couldn’t be damaged or likely destroyed. There were other things damaged on one day only to be restored to their original Friday condition. On one of the mornings that she’d forgotten to skip reaching in the nightstand drawer, she’d knocked the alarm clock onto the floor, and both bells were bent. When she awoke the next time, the clock was in the same place on the nightstand, both bells completely intact. After that, she experimented by damaging some unimportant items and found most had returned. She still didn’t know whether not finding the other items next time meant there was a flaw in the slaw, or they were just not things that were important to that day. She had no idea how all this was supposed to work.

All she could say for sure was that neither Aunt Lavinia’s dress nor her alarm clock could be damaged, as long as the day rebooted…and she’d have no way of proving that until the day actually did change to Sunday.

Pity she would eventually forget that in her efforts to free herself from this whirligig of time.

After changing into jeans and a button-up blouse at the farm, Daisy headed for the clinic so that she could arrive in enough time to intercept Enos.

Pulling into the parking lot, Daisy realized she had slightly miscalculated. Enos’s truck was already there, and he was not in it.

 _‘Already inside. Damn. I’ll just have to get here five minutes earlier next time,’_ she thought.

***

She’d had to face those blisters three more times before she got the timing just right to arrive at the same time Enos did.

 _Yes, she already tried just asking him to meet her there at a specific time…wouldn’t it be great if it could be that simple._ Apparently, there were rules to the game she hadn’t quite gotten a handle on yet.

“Hi, Enos.”

“Hey, Daisy. What are you doin’ here?”

She noticed the blisters on his face and neck extended down to his chest – which she could see because the top three buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned, and he wasn’t wearing an undershirt. When her eyes went down to his waist, noting his shirt was also not tucked in, Enos’s cheeks started to pink, and he began to button his shirt.

She caught his hands. “Don’t do that. You’ll just be more uncomfortable and make yourself scratch more.”

“Daisy, I don’t know how much more uncomfortable I could be right now,” Enos said, a little nervous laugh escaping along with the words.

“You don’t mind if I tag along while you see the nurse, do you?”

“No, Daisy. But I’m not sure why.”

“You don’t think I’m as interested in finding out why you got the hives on our wedding day?”

“I told you why Daisy. I just can’t be that happy an’ not get––”

“Horse pucky.”

“What?”

“I don’t believe it. Somethin’ else is causin’ this and we’re gonna get to the bottom of it if it takes me another forty or fifty times relivin’ this day!”

***

_Okay, so that was the wrong way to go about it. Let’s try that again, this time without the ‘horse pucky’ part. Aunt Lavinia never swore, but she had enough substitutes that she didn’t need to use the actual words, and that was one of her favorites._

***

“You don’t mind if I tag along while you see the nurse, do you?”

“No, Daisy. But I’m not sure why.”

“I just wanna make sure they’re takin’ good care of ya, sugar.”

“You’ve always been real good at takin’ care of me, Daisy. I don’t think I woulda got through that case o’ pneumonia last year without all the carin’ you done.”

“Oh, Enos. You’re the sweetest man. Now let’s go get you some relief for those hives.”

“Hey, Enos.” The receptionist said when they entered the clinic.

Daisy had never seen her before.

“Oh, my. What happened to your face?”

The distinct come-hither in the woman’s voice made Daisy move closer to Enos. She wrapped her hand around his bicep, only to feel it flinch under her touch. _‘He must have blisters on his arms too,’_ she thought and eased up on her grip.

“That’s why I’m here, Joanie. I gotta get somethin’ for this rash so I can go on duty in the mornin’.”

“I thought I read in the paper you were getting married today,” Joanie said with a frown that broadcast disappointment. “Is this––?”

Enos said, “Where are my manners? Daisy, this is Joanne, but she likes Joanie. She’s new here in Hazzard. Only been here a week.”

A brunette with dark creamy skin and dazzling amber eyes, the woman leaned forward over the counter, and Daisy could have sworn she actually batted her long eyelashes. “My car got a flat tire that first day out on…where was it Enos?”

“Sand Creek Road,” Enos said, with a sappy smile.

“That’s it. And I didn’t have a spare, so Enos drove me into Hazzard to get a new tire, then drove me back out to my car and changed it for me. You don’t get that kind of chivalry where I come from.”

“Joanie’s from New York City.”

Daisy tightened her grip on Enos’s arm, ignoring the flinch, and said as sweetly as she could muster, “Whoda thunk?...Miss…” She looked at the nametag. “Arcola. My _fiancé_ here is _real_ uncomfortable. Do you think we could see the nurse now?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> References:
> 
> * Direct quotes from Season 7, Episode 16 - "Enos and Daisy's Wedding"


	4. Hazy, Crazy-Daisy Land

_“We stood a moment so in a strange world,  
Myself as one his own pretense deceives;  
And then I said the truth (and we moved on).  
A young birch clinging to its last year’s leaves.”_

Robert Frost

* * *

“Stress-related hives my foot!” Daisy said with her hands on her hips. “How can happiness be stressful?”

“I tried ta’ explain to ya’, Daisy.”

“Well, I ain’t buyin’ it, no matter what that nurse said. We’re gonna go see Doc Appleby. When I hear him say it, maybe I’ll believe it…and that’s a _big_ maybe.”

“But Doc Appleby’s gonna be outta town for a week––”

“How do you know?”

“Joanie told me when you were gettin’ a drink of water.”

“Damn, can’t anything be easy?” Daisy mumbled under her breath, then looked up and begged, “What is it you want from me?”

Enos furrowed his forehead. “You feelin’ okay, Daisy?”

“I’m just fine and dandy, Enos. Gettin’ hives from just bein’ happy don’t make any sense, and I’m gonna prove it.”

“How you gonna do that? You’re good at a lotta things, Daisy, but I don’t think doctorin’s one of um.”

“You said I took good care of you when you had pneumonia.”

“It’s not the same thing. Now, I’m real grateful you want to help me an’ all, but I think we oughtta just wait for Doc.”

***

_Hell and damnation! It wasn’t bad enough she’d had to live this frickin’ day over again for the fifty-fourth time; she had to deal with a stubborn jackass to boot!_

* * *

**Balladeer:** Folks, I think ole’ Daisy’s got herself what folks in Hazzard call a real confound-undrum.

 **Daisy:** Speaking of jackasses…Nobody asked you.

* * *

_Once more from the top – fast forward._

Jesse walked into Boss’s office at the Boar’s Nest, aka wedding day dressing room, to tell Daisy that Enos had left the ring in his other pants and Bo and Luke were going to Mrs. Oxford’s boarding house to pick it up ‘cause Enos was _‘in no condition to drive.’_

 _He left her ring in his other pants while she had taken great care to tie his securely into her dress and even made sure it was still there when she hung it on the hat tree?_ The hives, turning down her proposal three times… _THREE TIMES_ …and not bringing the ring to the ceremony…stubbornly not wanting to get rid of those hives sooner rather than later…

Hit abruptly with the idea that maybe Enos didn’t really want to marry her, she wondered, ‘ _Maybe he’s just in love with the idea of being happy with me.’_

“Daisy?” Uncle Jesse asked, the familiar concern on his face. “You alright?”

_Why did everyone keep asking her that?_

“Yes, Uncle Jesse, I’m fine,” she lied.

“Weddin’ jitters is normal, honey. You didn’t eat a thing for breakfast. Maybe I should go git you somethin’ ta’ put on your stomach. I know Lulu wouldn’t mind me takin’ a little b’fore the reception if she knew it was for you. The way J.D.’s been eyein’ that ham, not so sure I could git it past him without a fuss.”

Daisy let out a laugh. Though weak, it was the first time she could remember laughing since all this started.

“No, I’m not hungry.” She hesitated and turned toward the gown on the hat tree. “Uncle Jesse? You sure Aunt Lavinia would’ve wanted me to wear her weddin’ dress today?”

Jesse Duke wasn’t the kind of man who just said whatever came into his mind right out. He studied the situation first, then chose his words to mean something when they finally came out, especially about truly important things. So, mulling it over with himself, he took a little time to answer. He asked her to sit and took the chair directly facing hers.

“Lavinia should be the one tellin’ you this. Lord knows, besides moonshinin’, it was one a’ the only sore spots ever come up between us.”

Daisy remembered how Lavinia felt about Jesse running shine. Her opposition had nothing to do with disapproval and everything to do with worrying about him careening off some cliff in the dead of night trying to outrun the law. _Was that it? Was it because Enos had chosen the Law over his own Daddy’s chosen profession that her family seemed to be against them getting married? He was okay as a friend who looked the other way, or saved their tails more than a few times, but not okay to marry a Duke?_

Jesse took her hands in his. “You know how much I love you, sweet girl… and how much your Aunt Lavinia loved you, but…”

“But, what, Uncle Jesse?” she whispered.

“You were such a headstrong girl when you were growin’ up. Still are in some ways. Always leapin’ before ya’ look. Your aunt used to say that you’d rue that one a’ these days.”

“You think I’m gonna rue marryin’ Enos?”

“I’m afraid maybe y’are, but not for the reasons I’m thinkin’ you’re thinkin’. It’s what your Aunt Lavinia was frettin’ about’s got me worried. She loved you very much, but she was fond a’ Enos too. Real fond. When his Mama died, and Otis was out on a run, and Enos stayed with us a lot…”

“I know, Uncle Jesse. He was like a part of the family.”

“Yes…and no…Luke was older, and Bo was a youngun, so you and Enos spent a lot of time together.”

Daisy smiled at the memories of running the woods, hunting for wild blackberries, exploring the cracks in the rocks at the old quarry…

Jesse continued, “Then you two started gettin’ older, and Enos, well, he had to grow up fast when Otis died. He got serious about what he should do with his life, and you just stayed headstrong. Not that that’s a bad thing. I always admired that you were kinda free-spirited. But Lavinia was always knittin’ worry lines that you weren’t takin’ life serious enough.”

Her aunt had talked to her several times about taking life more seriously. Daisy would try to dispel Lavinia’s fears for a while, then find something new and exciting to do and forget about growing up and being responsible.

“Well, I’m all grown up now. I’m gettin’ married in an hour.”

“Are you?”

“Of course, I’m gettin’ married.”

“I mean, are you all grown up? I always argued with her that you would get along just fine, but she was more worried about––”

***

_That wasn’t easy._

And just about the time Uncle Jesse was going to explain what he meant and what Aunt Lavinia was really worried about, that so-and-so Deputy Attorney General ( _she still couldn’t ever catch his name_ ), followed by Enos and Rosco and Boss, blew into the office.

Took her six more times of trying to figure out she wasn’t going to get her uncle to start that conversation again, let alone finish it. _Whoever dumped the load of crap about ‘everybody lovin’ a mystery’ should have to live their weddin’ day over for two months._

It did give her an idea of why, or who was orchestrating this game, though. On the sixtieth night she spent as a still-unmarried woman, Daisy sat in her room thinking. Maybe she _should_ look a little longer or closer before she leaped.

Aunt Lavinia’s wedding dress hung from the side of the wardrobe…that matched the bed…and the nightstand. Three pieces of furniture Lavinia had been brought with her when she married Uncle Jesse and came to live at the farm. The double bell alarm clock was old fashioned and out of date. She could have gotten one of those clocks with the lighted up numbers and had a radio in it when they came out, but she had kept this one because…because it belonged to Aunt Lavinia.

Martha Lavinia Duke was doing this, giving her this dream. _But, if Aunt Lavinia was trying to tell her something, why not just come out and say it to her in the dream, or whatever this was, and be done with it?_

 _Oh. Right. That would be easy._ Rule Number 5: It can’t be easy!

***

_‘The old clock on the nightstand says it’s 11:59 pm here. Wonder what time it is outside the Twilight Zone?’_


	5. Fool's Game

**Balladeer:** _“There is a fifth dimension, beyond which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and––”**_

 **Daisy:** Show off.

 **Balladeer:** _“––shadow, between science and superstition and it lies in the pit––”**_

 **Daisy:** Zip it! _[Icy stare.]_

 **Balladeer:** _“––ofman’sfearsandthesummitofhisknowledge.Itis––”**_

 **Daisy:** _[Glacial stare.]_

* * *

“A mother takes twenty years to make a man out of her boy,  
and another woman makes a fool of him in twenty minutes.”

Robert Frost

* * *

The next eleven rewinds, Daisy just went through the motions in a fog, kind of zombie-like. She looked the part as well. Not a same-damn-day went by that someone didn’t comment on how pale and wan she appeared. Same frickin-frackin song she still couldn’t remember the words to, a splitting headache, no aspirin, banging her toe on EVERYTHING in the house, and the shivers (which she now realized was Aunt Lavinia tapping her on the shoulder and saying, _“Get up, Missy. You got chores to do.”_ ).

On rewind number seventy-two, after the umpteenth time being turned down in the parking lot, she was meandering in Rhuebottom’s, looking for nothing-in-particular, when she overheard a conversation in the next aisle.

“Alice Jean Davenport, what on earth are you doin’ here? Last I heard, you were in Atlanta.” _(That was definitely Ivy Bledsoe.)_

“I came in for the weekend when Mama called me on Friday and told me about the wedding.”

“Looks like you wasted a trip. Weddin’s been called off.” _(It was Mary Alice Cumberland. Daisy started to round the corner to educate her on the difference between ‘postponed’ and ‘called off,’ but considering what she had recently begun to suspect…she decided to stay put.)_

“Not a waste at all. Now maybe somebody else will have a chance.” _(Alice Jean from eighth grade.)_

“I doubt it. She still has that poor sweet man wrapped around her little finger.” ( _Ivy again.)_

“Maybe. And maybe that wrappin’s unravelin’ a tad bit. Mama heard from Skeeter McGreevy, who heard it from the Donner twins who said Daisy asked Enos three times – and _he_ turned _her_ down – all three times.”

“She must be between boyfriends again?” _(Mary Alice – blond hussy. Never did like her.)_

“Hush. That’s not nice. He got the hives, for goodness sake.” _(Thank you, Ivy.)_

“I know, but we’re all thinkin’ it. It’s as good a way of gettin’ out a’ gettin’ married as any other. So, what’s with the picnic fixins, Alice Jean? Back in Hazzard for only a day, and you already got a hot date?” _(Mary Alice was breedin’ a scab on her nose.)_

“No. Maybe.” _(Alice Jean.)_

“And is that buttermilk I see in your buggy? Thinkin’ of doin’ a little consolin’?” _(Ivy.)_

“Just never you mind about what’s in my buggy.”

With that, Alice Jean went on her merry way to the register while Daisy ducked behind the cereal display.

Then the giggling started, and she heard May Alice say, “If I wasn’t already married…I might be inclined to do a little consolin’ myself.”

“Yeah, but you are, so wipe that look off your face, _Lo-lita_.” _(Ivy said. Daisy knew she liked Ivy.)_

For the longest time, Daisy stood there staring into the cereal boxes, watching first Alice Jean, then Mary Alice and Ivy check out and leave. Once all three were out of the store, she grabbed a box and took her purchase to the register. Mr. Rhuebottom’s middle boy was behind the counter and said, “It’s later than you think.”

Startled, Daisy asked, “What did you mean by that? Did Aunt Lavinia tell you to say that?”

He looked at her as if a third eye had just popped into the middle of her forehead. “The cereal? It’s expired. I musta missed it when I was pullin’ stuff this morning. I’m sorry, Miss Daisy. Here, I’ll go get you a new box.”

“No,” she said, absently, “Never mind. I didn’t really need the cereal anyway.”

Outside Rhuebottom’s she narrowed her eyes and looked down the road in the direction of Mrs. Oxford’s Boarding House. _‘You just go ahead, Alice Jean Davenport. Do your worst. He won’t even remember you next time. An’ I got a dimension as timeless as infinity on my side!”_

[She tilted her head and her eyes darted, conspiratorially, slightly sideways. “Thanks for that one, by the way. But don’t let it go to your head.”]

The wheel in Daisy’s gerbil cage started squeaking again – louder and in a much higher gear.

***

[…It ain’t _wise_ pa-dum-pa-dum…da da _dum_ pa-dum-pa-dum, youuuuuu….]

_Just a few more seconds! @ &#(#(#()%$&$& I almost had it! _

Aunt Lavinia’s alarm clock was sent sailing out the window and landed in the yard next to Dixie.

Trudging down the hall on her search for the aspirin at 4:52 am, Daisy side-stepped the linen cabinet, the hall table, AND the coat tree.

She forgot about the dad-blasted footstool.

***

The parking lot behind the Boar’s Nest was the same as it always was. The ubiquitous hay bales and hub caps decorated the rear cinderblock wall, and Rosco’s unlocked Sheriff’s patrol car was still parked next to Daisy’s jeep.

Dixie was decked out in yellow and white honeycomb garland, and honeycomb wedding bells were taped to the hood and hung from the roll bar. A sign painted with red letters read “JUST MARRIED” with hearts painted on either side adorned the spare tire on the back. Below that was a trail of old boots and shoes, miscellaneous tins, and blue and orange Maxwell House coffee cans.

_Those would make too much noise and would have to go first thing._

Daisy, dressed in Lavinia’s champagne lace, strode out to meet Enos. Her veil of tulle attached at the back to a crown of white and soft yellow satin flowers flowed behind her as she made her way to him.

She let him get all the way through the original dialogue before implementing her latest gambit.

_[“Enos, you’re the most wonderful man in the whole world. Now, are you sure this is what you wanna do?”_

_“The way I care for you, it’s the only right thing to do right now.”]_

She let him gather her up in his arms while he said for the who-knows-how-many-times, _“Oh, Daisy. I’m sorry.*”_ She let that moment last as long as was possible. Tightening her hold on him, she buried her face into his shoulder, but she guessed he didn’t notice because he put her down and started to spirit her back into the Boar’s Nest to tell their guests the wedding was postponed because of the hives.

“I know, Enos,” she said, deviating from the original. _It was getting hard to remember what was original and what she changed over the who-knows-how many -blah-blah-blah._ “Before we go back in, though, you think you could take a look at somethin’ for me?”

“…Sure, Daisy, as long as I can get this fancy suit back––”

“Never mind that, we’ll have plenty of time. I think Bo and Luke did somethin’ to Dixie when they were decoratin’ her.”

“She looks right fine to me, Daisy.”

“Can you take a look under the glove compartment? I think they mighta’ set a booby trap.”

“Oh, Daisy, they wouldn’t do that. Not on your weddin’ day.”

“Yeah, well, Arliss Franklin’s nit-wit brother put his car on blocks, sprinkled pepper in the heater, and put Limburger cheese on the manifold. Poor Adaline had a headache by the time she and Arliss got to their honeymoon suite. And you know what jokesters my cousins are. I start every…I got up with a headache this morning and don’t need another one.”

“But we’re not drivin’ to the honeymoon today, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember. Boy, do I remember…I _still_ have to drive home, sugar.”

“Okay, Daisy. If it’ll make you feel any better, I’ll take a look.”

By the time Enos got his head under the dash, Daisy had slipped one handcuff around his right wrist and the other around the roll cage bar on the passenger side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> References:
> 
> * Direct quote from Season 7, Episode 16 - "Enos and Daisy's Wedding"
> 
> ** Introduction/message by Rod Serling for the 1960s circa TV show "The Twilight Zone"


	6. Fool's Game or Fair Game?

" _But not to call me back or say good-bye;  
And further still at an unearthly height,  
A luminary clock against the sky  
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.  
I have been one acquainted with the night."_

Robert Frost

* * *

Awaking, Daisy couldn't remember how Saturday Number 73 ended. _That was a first._ But it had ended, and this was Saturday Number 74. _Or was it?_ Maybe it was Sunday. _Lordy, could she be that lucky? Had she broken the curse of Rule Number Five?_

 _Hell and double damnation!_ The clock was on the nightstand and not outside in the dirt next to Dixie.

Burying her head into the pillow, her frustrated and slightly frightened screams were muffled. She kept hollering into it until, recovering her wits, she began to think out the events of yesterday – today – the previous do-over…She pounded her head repeatedly against the pillow. Except to fuel her need to escape the tilt-a-whirl, _did the difference even matter any more_?

_How could a dream last this long?_

_Okay, Daisy. Stop whining and think._

' _You woke up at 4:52 on SDD-73 with a headache from almost remembering the chorus to that song – Right! It's the chorus, not the first lines, as much good as that revelation would do her, but maybe it was progress – like not remembering how the day, and her plan to kidnap Enos, ended…'_

_Back to thinking, dammit!_

' _You had a headache; there was no aspirin.'_ Looking for the first time at the wardrobe and the two dresses hanging from it, she allowed herself a moment of doubt that it meant anything _. Maybe it had nothing to do with the dresses, maybe if she found aspirin in her nightstand…that's how she would tell if this was a new day._

Reaching gingerly out to the knob on the nightstand drawer, she hesitated a second and then yanked the drawer open.

So...no aspirin, it's not Sunday. _But was there aspirin in the nightstand on Friday night when she went to sleep?_ She couldn't remember. _Had she thought of that before? Must have. How could she do-over the same-damn-day seventy-three times and not explore a possibility so simple?_

What she remembered of Friday night was Uncle Jesse giving her the wedding dress. A quiver had gone through her like a wave starting at her shoulders and straight down to her toes when he'd said that her aunt would be proud to have her wear it. She'd hoped to deserve that pride. At the same time, she'd smiled inwardly at how Enos would see her in that dress. And then Jesse's words on that day, which she hadn't been able to repeat since, came back to her. _"Enos had to grow up fast when Otis died. He got serious about what he should do with his life, and you just stayed headstrong._ _Lavinia was always knittin' worry lines that you weren't takin' life serious enough."_

Daisy noticed that she was more and more venturing into wool-gathering and mind wandering.

Back to the task at hand. _'You woke up at 4:52 on SDD-73 with a headache. There was no aspirin, the dresses were still hanging on the wardrobe, you went to the bathroom and stubbed your toe on the footstool, and you got a shiver.'_

When she woke up, or at least by the time she looked at it, the clock was on the nightstand and said the time was 5:23. The first signs of dawn were streaming through the window – it was morning. She didn't have a headache because the song wasn't playing in her head. She hadn't reached for the aspirin except as a test. She hadn't gone to the bathroom and didn't stub her toe on anything…and no shiv…

If it walks like a duck… _A dream within a dream?_ If this limbo she found herself waking to every day was actually a dream… _if not a dream, what? Was this something else, and handcuffing him to Dixie…was the dream…_

Pulling the pillow over her head, this time Daisy screamed as loud as she could into the mattress. There weren't enough swear words in existence to cover this cluster of a day – days.

… _ugh. Same ole' same-damn day. "Please, Aunt Lavinia, tell me what you want from me…I thought you loved me."_

_***_

SDD-73 started out just like the first seventy-two. You know the drill, headache, no-damned-aspirin (she would likely call it that for the rest of her natural life), toe-banging, the chills, I mean the shivers – same thing isn't it?

* * *

Narrator Aside:

-{{There are only five rules in this game, and Lavinia controls them all. And yes, it is her, just in case you were wondering. Let's recap, shall we?

One: Daisy cannot hide in her room.

Two: Daisy cannot leave Hazzard County.

Three: No essential items, such as the wedding dress and the clock, can be permanently damaged as long as the day stays Saturday, February 2.

Four: Other rules will not allow her to take certain steps or skip them, but she has yet to get a handle on just which are which – bringing us to;

Rule Number Five: Daisy is not allowed to take the easy way out. There is no EASY way. Ain't gonna happen.

In this _zone of twilight,_ everything else is fair game.}}-

Now, where were we?

* * *

Maybe it was starting again. Perhaps not; hard for Daisy to know for sure anymore. Just when she thought herself in control, Lavinia pulled the floor out from under her. She was falling into the abyss with no one to catch her.

She'd made attempts at telling her family about the day repeating itself. What she said, or how many times she said it, or how many different ways she tried didn't seem to matter. The explanation just made her sound as crazy as Cooter's cousin Letty, who went to sleep sane one night and woke up claiming she'd been abducted by aliens.

_('Note to self: Go visit Letty when this is all over. Maybe she ain't as cuckoo-for-Cocoa Puffs as folks think.')*_

Thinking there would be a 'when' at least meant she hadn't completely given up. On the other hand, she was drowning, with no one to save her, not even Enos. Except for the scripted version of their wedding day, he'd avoided her like Flash avoids a bath. But she couldn't decipher the why of it. That first day, the original day, he'd seemed okay, not overjoyed but not woebegone either, and genuinely determined to find a way to marry her.

Maybe he'd had second thoughts after leaving the Boar's Nest that afternoon. He'd seemed a little distant the first time she met him outside the clinic. She'd returned to searching for a way to cure those hives or at least the real cause, ever since – but always alone. That one time she showed up at his room at Mrs. Oxford's after he left the clinic was a day she didn't want to repeat.

***

Enos's room at the boarding house had a small kitchenette on the right side of the main room with a single bed in the center and a small sitting area with a sofa on the left side. His bed was neatly made, like the last time she had been there only a few hours earlier – when Rosco and the DAG found the money the real crooks had left to cement the frame-up…and the time before that when she'd had to stay the night under Enos's protection. She trusted him as she would no other soul, except her family. Even if…even if he didn't…if he didn't…love her anymore. He always had her back. Always.

5:00 pm. _'He should be here by now,'_ she'd thought, picking up the picture of her from the dresser. She wondered if there were other photos of her, of _them_ , somewhere in that room. _Was it conceited to give him pictures of herself, knowing he would want them…or just thoughtless?_ The photo in the frame was ten years old. She'd had others made and given them to him. _Did he still see her as twenty-three? ("I mean, are you all grown up?" Uncle Jesse had asked.)_

Next to the dresser was an old sampler she hadn't noticed before that read, _"Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will."_ **

*

A gentle, familiar touch on her shoulder brought her out of a light, dreamless sleep."Daisy…Daisy…?"

"Oh. Hey, Enos."

She peeked at the clock on his nightstand (he had one that flipped the numbers and the date on little plastic cards – Saturday, February 2, 11:03 pm). "Guess I fell asleep."

She meant it for real and knew it was the same day because she awoke in Enos's room, not her own at the farm.

She saw hesitation in his eyes before he asked, "Daisy, what are you doin' here?"

"Waitin' for you, obviously." She hadn't meant it to come out that snippy. At least she didn't think she had.

Now he looked hurt or miffed, or…disappointed?

"What did the nurse say? About the hives?" she asked anyway.

Again with the hesitation…no…confusion…disappointment…? She didn't have a clue what that look was, adding to her mounting frustration as each day ahead played itself out.

He took a small amber-colored bottle out of his jean jacket and showed it to her. "She gave me this elixir. Said it would ease some of the itchin' so I can sleep."

Daisy took the bottle and removed the cap. "Smells a little like Witch Hazel."

"She said it had other stuff in it, and the doc might give me somethin' stronger, but I should be careful not to overdose usin' it. Not so sure I want somethin' stronger. She told me that if this potion doesn't help, I should come back tomorrow when the clinic doctor is in. For all the good that'll do."

Picturing that sultry, eyelash-batting receptionist ogling him from chest to…thigh, who had probably been the reason he was so late, she thought, _'Over my dead body.'_

One of the lovely facets of Rule Number Four was that she couldn't follow him around spying on him with the clinic femme-fatale or Alice Jean Davenport or Mary Alice Cumberland _(cheating witch that blond-in-a-bottle was)_ or any other female out there who thought they could have their way with him now that there might be a flaw in the slaw.

That _flaw_ was more intimidating than she had been prepared for, and she'd become slightly gun-shy around him, her snarky little remark from earlier notwithstanding.

Enos sniffed the air and said with little of his normal enthusiasm, "Smells good. Like Aunt Livvy's chicken vegetable soup good."

Enos hadn't called her Aunt Lavinia, Livvy, since they were kids. Trying not to let on that she noticed, she said, "I made you some. It'll need heating up, though. But you've probably already eaten."

"No, I didn't feel much like supper. I am kind of hungry, and that soup smells good…like home."

They were sitting next to each other on the couch now. She reached out and put her hand on his. His response wasn't exactly a flinch, but he didn't take hold of it either. Feeling suddenly self-conscious, something _she_ hadn't felt since they were kids, she withdrew her hand and set it awkwardly in her lap.

Then, going through the motions, she heated the pot, ladling steaming hot soup into two bowls, and set them on the little table with one lonely chair. Enos wordlessly pulled the other from behind the dresser and wiped off the dust with a damp rag before unfolding it. Setting the chair at the table, as always the quintessential gentleman, he waited for her to sit first. They ate without saying a single word to each other. There was an ember in that silence, hot and smoldering, and she wondered if she'd broken more than time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> References:
> 
> * Cocoa Puffs is a trademarked name for one of General Mills' Cereals – the commercial for the cereal features a Cuckoo Bird that proclaimed he was "Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs"
> 
> ** Quote attributed to poet, writer, philosopher Suzy Kassem. She would have been ten at the time frame of this story. But "time is an illusion' according to theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli. "Our naïve perception of its flow doesn't correspond to physical reality."


	7. Hemlock and Old Lace

" _The way a crow  
Shook down on me  
The dust of snow  
From a hemlock tree...  
Has given my heart  
A change of mood  
And saved some part  
Of a day I rued."_

Robert Frost

* * *

Enos put the spoon into his empty bowl and reached for Daisy's.

"You didn't eat much," he said.

She tried to smile, but it got no further than pursed lips. Tears she felt he wouldn't understand were held stubbornly behind her eyes. Every instinct told her to tell him goodnight, leave, then run as fast she could away from there. It was 11:46 pm. She should have listened to her instincts.

But she didn't. Her only answer was to hand him the bowl.

When Mrs. Oxford let her into his room, she'd had every intention of telling Enos the predicament she was in, even if she had to retell him jer tale of woe day after day after day. She couldn't do it alone anymore. Aunt Lavinia had let her get this far without putting up a roadblock to stop her. _She must want them to figure this out together._ Had he come home at a decent hour, she'd have done it, even if him knowing only gave her a few hours of rest from carrying the knowledge alone. But it was 11:47 now. Thirteen minutes until midnight. Then, she would find herself waking in her bed at the farm without ever knowing how she got back there. Not enough time.

The library had all manner of books on the subject. Time travel had always fascinated Enos. She hadn't paid much attention to time before, thinking she had plenty of it. Of late, she'd thought of little else. _Boy howdy, did she have time aplenty now!_ And it was taking her on a slow train to nowhere. Waiting for those last grains of sand to trickle into the bottom half of the hourglass until the end of day seventy-five, all she wanted now was was for it to give her more of _this_ same-damn day. Now, she would have to try again if Aunt Lavinia would let her. One failure seemed all she was allowed.

While putting the dishes in the tiny sink, Enos was close enough to touch. She nearly reached out but pulled back. _She should leave_ but seemed to be glued to the chair, overwhelming loneliness keeping her in a place that this new dynamic between them made all the lonelier.

Silence is the deadliest form of heartbreak. It creeps into the soul and slowly devours it. However, the termination of silence in his room that night was like a knife thrust into Daisy's heart.

"I have to tell you something," Enos said, still turned away from her.

She didn't respond right away, contemplating whether or not she should say the same to him. How could she explain in a few minutes the nightmare she'd been living for more than two months of their wedding day? She held it in.

"You can tell me anything, Enos."

"I wonder," he said softly, then took a deep breath. "Remember I told you, b'fore all this happened – the bank bein' robbed, us talkin' about gettin' married…I've been talkin' to Turk a lot."

"I remember."

"He's been tryin' to get me to come back to Los Angeles."

"You didn't say anything about that."

"That's 'cause I didn't take it real serious b'fore."

"But now you are?"

He nodded his head but still wouldn't turn to face her.

"Lieutenant Broggi talked to the LAPD Academy director. They're holdin' me a spot open for the next session."

He waited for a response, but all he found when he finally turned around was the vacuum of an empty room and a door left open.


	8. Where have all the Daisy's gone?

" _I may return  
If dissatisfied  
With what I learned  
From having died."_

Robert Frost

* * *

Daisy woke on same-damn-day, NUMBER NINETY, in a state of deep mourning. Three months with nothing resolved. For the last fifteen days, she and Enos had avoided each other. Bo and Luke _always_ caught the real crooks and freed Enos without her having to endure any of the rest of it. How Lavinia allowed that she didn't know and didn't much care. Didn't much care about anything. He was leaving her again.

 _Would she even know if he had left? Was the real Enos Strate already in L.A.?_ _Was what she perceived just a shadow of him, of everyone who had moved on without her?_ It boggled the mind - this time travel crap. And she was so done with it.

Abandoning her search for a cure or the cause, not seeing Enos in fifteen days had at least spared her the reminder that he had probably given himself hives to get out of marrying her.

"This is it, Aunt Lavinia! I'm done with whatever lesson you thought you were teaching me!" she shouted to the Universe, with no concern whatsoever that Uncle Jesse, or Luke, or Bo might hear.

There was no reaction from downstairs. Neither the Universe nor Lavinia answered.

She was alone.

So alone.

***

Per the drill, the song was blaring in Daisy's head, fully remembered on every damn one of the last fifteen re-dos. _Dammit._ Just this one day, couldn't she forget the words? She'd mashed her toe, same one, into everything in the house by then and was repeating the cycle. It had become a game of strategy to see which ones her aunt would choose to torture her with each morning.

Back in her room, the old double-bell alarm clock read 6:58—time for the draconian farce to begin anew. Donning the blue-grey dress, not because it was his favorite, but because it was part of the assigned play props, she couldn't bear to look at herself in the full-length mirror.

She went downstairs to face the doom and gloom and then made as hasty an exit from the farm as she could with the old lace and new heels. This time, she left Enos's wedding ring in the nightstand drawer where the no-damned-aspirin should have been.

The next hour passed as it had so many times before at the dry-cleaners…Until it was time to leave for Silvy's Salon, she'd thought she was ready for this.

"We all better get on over to the beauty parlor," Cindy reminded them. "Silvy's waitin' for us. She's openin' up on a Saturday 'specially for us. Said she wouldn't miss doin' your hair for this weddin' unless she fell down a well or somethin'."

Daisy stopped in the doorway of the dry-cleaning store, staring into space, and it was like deja vu all over again. Alice Jean Davenport was crossing the road. _THAT was who she'd seen the first time._

Patsy snapped her fingers in front of Daisy since she seemed to be staring out into space. "Earth to Daisy? You sure you wanna go through with this, hon?"

Snapping back, Daisy declared, "Of course, I'm sure. Never been more sure of anything in my life. Gotta' be gorgeous for your own funeral."

"Me and Cindy were startin' to think maybe you really wanted to…You been drinkin' or somethin', Daisy?"

Reading the words on the back of the sidewalk bench, Daisy said, "Not yet."

' _Be patient. Some things take time, and time takes some things away.' *_

Patience was the one thing she'd run slap out of. "But, check back a little later."

***

It was about 11:30 am when Daisy, Patsy, and Cindy showed up at the Boar's Nest. Lulu caught her on the way to Boss's office and asked if they could talk a little before she got dressed for the ceremony.

"Sure Lulu, I'll just make sure Aunt Lavinia's dress gets hung up proper, and then I'll be right back out."

Daisy hurried off before Lulu could start on that road down memory lane. She wasn't in any mood to ruminate on how much Aunt Lavinia had wanted to be with her on this day or how radiant she'd looked standing next to Uncle Jesse when she first wore the wedding dress. And there was no question as to whether she was there in spirit or not.

Ducking into the office she was met with the sight of Patsy and Cindy in those pink dresses that shoulda' been yellow. Oddly enough, the color didn't matter to her anymore. They could have been chartreuse, and she wouldn't have cared.

"We'll help you get dressed for the ceremony, Daisy."

"No, it's okay. Ya'll go out and keep Bo and Luke company for a bit. I need some alone time."

"Sure, Daisy. Just call us when you're ready. Oh," she said, pulling a band of frilly satin out of her purse. "Here's your weddin' garter. You're supposed to put it just above your knee, but I'd aim higher since the groom is the one who's gonna take it off." She winked.

"Yeah, I'll take that under consideration. Thanks."

That did it.

As soon as the door closed behind Patsy and Cindy and their pink dresses, Daisy headed for the storeroom and pulled out a bottle of Wild Turkey 101, the fastest drunk available – a _perfect storm_ of spirits. ** A few shots of the super-premium high-octane liquor and you forget how many you've had.

With the wedding dress slung over her left arm and the bottle of bourbon in her right hand, she ducked out of the office using Boss's super-secret escape door, the one he used when Lulu or some heavy from one of his schemes-gone-haywire was after him.

The Boar's Nest was merely a speck in her rearview mirror in a New York minute. Two hours and three sheets to the wind later, she showed up in downtown Hazzard on the doorstep of WHOGG.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> References:
> 
> * Quote attributed to Lonewolf
> 
> ** Wild Turkey 101 as described by a review on June 2, 2015 – author unverified


	9. Achy Breaky*

**Balladeer:** You coulda knocked ole' Elton over with a feather offa Mizz Alene's prize peacock when Daisy Duke showed up at WHOGG, the voice of Hazzard County.

 **Daisy:** _[Silent sneer.]_

* * *

" _I'm drunk – nonsensical tired out."_

Robert Frost

* * *

"Daisy Mae Duke, what are you doin' here? Guess I _should_ say, Daisy Mae Strate. Thought you and Enos be on your way to honeymoon heaven right about now," Elton said when she appeared in the doorway. "I was just about to announce the nuptials."

Daisy swayed slightly.

"Daisy, you don't look so good. Even that poor dress looks better than you do right now."

Lavinia's wedding dress looked and smelled as if it had been dragged through the Georgia red clay after being soaked in Kentucky Bourbon.

"M fine and dandy. I want you to play me a song. Special song."

"Sure, Daisy, but maybe you should sit down. Here, I'll get you a chair. Then we can call Enos or Jesse––"

"No! No no no no noooo."

"But Daisy, you're not in any condition––"

"––ta drive. Ha! That's what Luke said ta Enos when he left my weddin' ring in his other pants! Hey, El..tn. Did ya' know he did that? Yep! That's wh… he di'it alright, just up an' lef it." She started to laugh but not in a funny haha way. "Is that sompin you'da done Ellltn? No. Takes somebody special ta' do somethin' like…at…th..at."

Elton picked up the phone and started to punch in numbers, but Daisy was too fast for him – pretty quick for somebody who'd obviously been on a bender. She wasn't just ordinary drunk. She was falling-down, stinking drunk.

Holding the receiver to her chest, daring him to take it back, she sloshed out, "Not 'till you play me my…sooonnng."

"Okay, Daisy, don't get riled. I'll play whatever you want."

She straightened up, still holding the phone receiver hostage, and declared, "Don't member name of it."

"I can't very well play you a song if I don't know the name of it."

"I'll…sing…singit for ya'. Goes like this. _'S a [da-dum], [la-la-la a]…heartburn..._ " She began humming it instead.

"Daisy, please let me call someb––"

" _Hitcha-_ "

"Yeah, I know the song. And I'll play it for you on one condition."

"C'ndichons – that's like rules, right? Nope. Don't do rules…no more rules!" She was doing more than swaying now. Turning a little greenish, she had to hold on to the back of Elton's chair to stay upright.

"Okay, Daisy. Let me at least get you some water."

"O…K…water's okay."

Elton reached for the phone when he saw her hand relax but she tightened her grip on it and pulled it in closer to her bosom.

Backing off, he raised his hands in surrender and moved toward the water dispenser.

"Daisy, please at least sit before you fall down. Boss'd kill me if you was to get hurt and drive up his insurance premiums."

"Sit…yes, sittin's O…K."

Daisy sat in the folding chair Elton had pulled out for her, emptying the paper cone of its contents, much of which ended up down the front of the dress. While she was distracted, Elton flipped the console's loudspeaker button to the 'on' position.

"Now, Daisy, tell me again what you want me to do before you'll let me call somebody."

"You deaf, Ellll…tn? I wanna hear the song. Play the damn song!"

"Then you'll give me back the phone?"

"Mebee. Mebee not."

Suddenly remembering she had turned the key in the door when she came in (he was so surprised at her appearance and condition that he'd completely forgotten), he leaned toward the mic as close as he dared without her realizing what he was doing.

"Why'd you lock the door, Daisy?"

She wiggled her finger at him and whispered, "Ta keep Aunt Lavinia...out there…"

***

By the time Enos arrived, the street was full of extremely interested bystanders. Boss and Rosco were waiting for him across the street from the radio station.

"Oh, Enos, I'm glad you're here," Boss droned. "You gotta do somethin' about Daisy."

"Sheriff, you didn't say nothin' 'bout Daisy. I been lookin' for her all over," he said, his voice laced on the edges with a combination of annoyance and fear.

Rosco took hold of him and said, "Now, Enos. Don't go gettin' yourself all worked up."

"Sheriff, if somethin's happened to Daisy…I'll never be able to forgive myself––"

Just then, Daisy's voice came over the loudspeaker, singing drunkenly along with record.

" _...[da-da-da-dum…da-da] -_ cuz' ahma damm...fool _..."_

"Enos. Enos, you gotta do somethin'," Boss demanded.

"Me?"

"It's your fault."

" _My_ fault…"

"Accordin' to Daisy, five or six times-"

Rosco interrupted, "Three."

"Whut?!"

"Three times. She only said it...oh, well maybe it was...mmmm..."

Boss gave him the stink-eye, then turned back to Enos, "Like I was sayin', accordin' to her, she's in there disturbin' the peace cause you the one left _her_ weddin' ring in your other pants. Now, I ask you. Who does that?" J.D. looked around for support and landed squarely on the face of his wife. "Well, anyway, why would you do that? Everybody in Hazzard County knows you been in love with that girl since the seventh grade."

Rosco got between Enos and Boss before things got ugly, which, if he read Enos's expression right was in a few seconds. "Ya' see, what my little fat buddy means is. Daisy's done locked herself in the radio station an' she's holdin' Elton hostage 'till he finishes playin' that song."

"Then, let her finish the song."

"Well, that sounds easy 'nuff alright. But, there's a flaw in that slaw, ya' see. This is the fifth time he's had to play it. Don't look like she plans on lettin' him go anytime soon."

"Ever thought of breakin' the door down?"

"Breakin' the door down!" Boss was beside himself. "Are you outta your ever-lovin' mind!? You know how much that door cost? Why the gold letting alone cost…"

Lulu caught his eye again, and this time she looked as if she would eat him for lunch.

"Well, well…it ain't that I'm worried about the door, just wanna make sure Daisy doesn't get hurt from somebody crashin' in unexpected like, that's all." Boss said as his most disingenuous J.D. Hogg smile spread across his jowls, then disappeared as quickly. "And if you expect to have a job come tomorrow mornin', you better figure out a way ta get Daisy Duke outta there without any harm comin' to my radi…ahem, Daisy or Elton."

Standing at the door, Enos had to endure more of the duet.

" _Never does nothin' but..."_

The whole of Hazzard County seemed to be at his back, waiting for the other shoe to drop. More people were waiting in the street to find out what would happen next than had shown up for the wedding.

He wrapped lightly on the door. "Daisy?...Daisy, it's me. Can I come in?"

"What're you doin' here? No planes to Calif..Cal..to the spacific?"

"Daisy, please don't do this."

"Do what? I'm juss lissnin' to music with my friend, Ellltn. Iddn't that right, Elll––"

"Yeah, Daisy. We're listenin' to music. Like you said. But maybe ole' Enos wants to listen too. He likes music. Don'tcha, Enos."

"Yeah, Elton. I like music."

Daisy leaned into the glass door with Enos and his puppy dog hazel eyes looking back at her from the other side. "He juss don't like _my_ music."

"Daisy, let me in."

"No."

"I'm not askin'. Open this door and let me in right now."

Daisy shrieked a laugh. "What're you gonna do, knock it down?"

"Yes."

Elton moved toward the door to get between it and Daisy. "Daisy, sounds like he means it. Now, that door never did nothin' to you. But if he knocks it down, it's gonna mean a heap of a lot to Boss. Enos'll be payin' for it the rest of his life. Now, I can't even imagine what's gone wrong between you two, but you gotta let him in."

Daisy dropped the phone and shrank into the shadows cast into the room by the man at the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> References:
> 
> * "Achy Breaky Heart" is a song written by Don Von Tress in 1990 under the title "Don't Tell My Heart" and released by Billy Ray Cyrus in 1992 (Wikipedia)


	10. Dream Pangs*

" _I had withdrawn in forest, and my song  
Was swallowed up in leaves that blew away;  
And to the forest edge you came one day  
(This was my dream) and looked and pondered long,  
But did not enter, though the wish was strong:  
You shook your pensive head as who should say,  
'I dare not –too far in his footsteps stray–  
He must see me would he undo the wrong.'_

_Not far, but near, I stood and saw it all  
Behind low boughs the trees let down outside;  
And the sweet pang it cost me not to call  
And tell you that I saw does still abide.  
But 'tis not true that thus I dwelt aloof,  
For the wood wakes, and you are here for proof."_

Robert Frost

* * *

Unsteady and reeling from the backlash of a fifth of bourbon, Daisy used the back wall for support. Just as she seemed to be achieving some degree of control (if not clarity), her head started spinning; she became nauseous and would falter again.

"Don't matter 'f he knocks it in…be good s'new come mornin'"

Meanwhile, Elton had unlocked the door and let Enos inside.

"Daisy," Enos said, holding out his hand. "You should sit down."

"Go…way. S'what yer good at."

"I'm not goin' anywhere 'till I know you're okay."

"Nev…stopped ya 'for." Daisy started a slow slide down the wall.

"Daisy, please sit down before you hurt yourself."

Enos reached out and tried to move in closer to catch her, but she stiffened her knees and slid back up.

"Don't touch me," she commanded, momentarily regaining control.

She thrust her arms to her sides and pressed her hands against the wall, causing Enos to back off.

"I…I won't…not if you don't want me to."

"Bet she lets ya' touch _her_ though…huh."

Elton's eyebrows took a rapid trip north and Enos looked hotter than the devil under those blisters.

"Daisy, you don't know what…?"

"She take y'out to…lake f'yer picnic? Are place?…Y'know…where ya' finely kissed me?"

Elton stood mesmerized like he was watching a train wreck that he couldn't look away from.

"Daisy Duke, you gotta quit this foolishness right now! 'Cause I had about as much of it as I can take."

"Well guess ya' don't haf take it no longer since yer goin' back…ta' L'ay….'thout…mmm…"

Daisy was sliding again, passing out along the way, and this time didn't stop until Enos caught her.

Outside, a collective gasp came from the crowd.

"Holy Mizz O'Leary's Bovine! The loudspeaker is still on," Elton said, hitting his forehead. "Sorry, Enos. I got so wrapped up in––" He clapped his palm over his mouth.

Enos picked Daisy up, lifted her off the floor onto his shoulder, and fireman-carried her into the storage closet.

After Elton lunged at the loudspeaker and mic to shut them off, Enos turned to him and said, "Lock that door and don't tell nobody, and I mean _nobody_ , we're gone 'till we get clean away, you hear me, Elton?"

"Sure thing, Enos. But where––?"

Too late. With Daisy draped limp and drooling into her hair and down the back of his shirt, Enos had already exited through the one-way security door Boss recently had installed.

***

Enos picked up another round, flat stone from the dwindling pile he'd assembled and skipped it across the still, tranquil water of the lake. The light was about to be tucked under the Earth for the night, so it was difficult to make out how many skips the stone made once released from his fingers. He had become quite good at rock-skipping, achieving up to twenty-six skips on a single stone. He'd done some research at the library and found that his best so far wasn't a tremendous competitive tally, but he was really only trying to see what was physically possible and beat his own score.

Although Hazzard Pond was his favorite fishing hole, he'd opted to spend a good deal of his time at Quarry Lake over the past few months, just him and his fishin' pole and the skippin' stones. He'd learned where the best skronkers could be located, making a mental map of them (since a physical one would disappear like a soap bubble in a breeze). And it was convenient since that was where he woke up every morning – stretched out on the front of his truck shivering, banging his head on something, his fancy suit draped over the front seat of the truck and that ding-dang song in his head.

The thoughts running through his mind right now were neither still nor tranquil, for Quarry Lake was the spot he and Daisy had made their plans to get married on Friday…ninety round-a-bouts ago.

He looked back toward where he'd parked Dixie. Daisy had been out for several hours now. She'd be awake pretty soon and he fretted about what he was going to say to her once she had sobered up. She'd done some crazy things lately but what she'd done that afternoon popped the cork right out of the bottle. Didn't matter that the people of Hazzard would be none the wiser in the morning. It was how to get past how angry he was at her that worried his mind.

If something had happened to her, he might as well drive over the edge of Stillson's Canyon and be done with it.

Of course, there was the part about how she was still handcuffed to Dixie's roll cage that wasn't going to make her happy with him either. He'd thought about it before, hadn't he? How he'd kidnap her and take her up into the hills as far as he could without going over the county line, then make her listen to him, make her understand. He'd sat over maps for hours strategizing routes and timetables, setting the trap.

He'd gone as far as trying to carry out his plan once, but Aunt Livvy wouldn't allow it, and at the crucial point, everything went blank, and he found himself back at Quarry Lake with the same morning regimen – the laws had to be obeyed 'cause they sure as shootin' couldn't be circumvented.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> References:
> 
> * "Dream Pangs" is the title of the Robert Frost poem used as the epigraph for this chapter.


	11. He Said, She Said

" _How many things have to  
happen to you  
before something occurs to you?"_

Robert Frost

* * *

When Daisy came to, she found herself in the front passenger seat of Dixie, parked under one of the lean-tos the high school kids had constructed for illicit Friday night partying and skinny-dipping at the lake. The air was laced with the crisp smell of Georgia pine, a slight hint of fish, and hickory smoke. A fire had burned down to large chunks of embers, which is why she didn't feel cold even though it was early February. And she was under a thick, warm quilt.

That's when she discovered she'd been cuffed to Dixie. The reasons she'd downed a bottle of liquor in the first place came flooding back to her – along with one hell of a hangover. It hurt to move her head, but she scoped out her immediate surroundings, trying to put more of the pieces of the day together into a cohesive picture, and figure out just how she'd managed to get to Quarry Lake.

Then it hit her when the ten-foot chain-link fence around the area came into focus. That part of the lake was riddled with deep sinkholes, tangled underwater vines, and pockets of quicksand that could suck deer, dogs, or a grown person whole in a few seconds. Some drunken sophomore from outside the county had nearly drowned there in the fall. After that, the fence went up, and the gate was always padlocked. Only three people in Hazzard County knew the combination: Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane, Deputy Cletus Hogg – and Deputy Enos Strate.

Daisy's head started swimming as she was pummeled with a series of stereoscopic flash cards of a brunette, who looked a lot like Daisy Duke in a dirty wedding dress, drunkenly blathering out a lousy version of _It's a Heartache_ and jabbering words from a play titled 'not her finest hour.'

Maybe it was the booze, or maybe it was the sense of mortification that made her want to hurl. It was bad enough she'd said those words at all – but Dear God! she'd said them to _him_ – out loud.

Yeah, and now she remembered why. That just raised her hackles once again. He must be there somewhere.

"Enos," she tried to yell but cringed at the pitch of her own voice.

No response.

She looked outside her immediate surroundings and caught a figure silhouetted against the post-sunset glow behind the lake.

"Enos!" She cringed again.

He didn't answer – just chucked another stone into the darkness creeping over the water.

"Enos, unlock these handcuffs."

"No," he shouted back, then sent another stone flying.

Furious, she rattled the cuffs until they began to chafe her wrist. Opening the glove compartment with her free hand, she pulled out papers and hoop earrings and lipstick cases, looking for a nail file or paperclip to jimmy them herself. She stopped foraging when their marriage license fell out onto her lap, followed by a ring box she didn't recognize. Before she could reach for the box, Enos snatched it up and threw it into the bushes, then turned back toward the lake.

"Don't you dare walk away from me, Enos Strate!" Still hurt but managed to force it out anyway.

He kept on going until he nearly collapsed onto the wet ground, head bent to his knees a few feet away.

"You gonna get me outta these things?"

"No."

"Is that all you have to say to me?"

"Yes."

Beyond worrying about how her head felt, she clenched her teeth, balled up her fist, and seethed a few guttural but unintelligible curses.

"Please, take off the cuffs."

"No."

"Why not?"

"'Cause I'm still mad at you." He meant it and wanted to stay that way.

"Where do you get off bein' mad at me?"

"You done some real crazy things before, but drivin' after you had a snootful…Daisy, you coulda' killed yourself or somebody else!"

' _Wouldn't have mattered,'_ she thought. She was sure Aunt Lavinia would never have allowed that. She wanted to say it so badly.

"In the first place, I didn't drive under the influence!" She pulled on one of the tattered and clay-stained lace ruffles on the dress. "How do ya' think Aunt Lavinia's dress got in this condition? Huh? I walked back into town, Enos!"

Actually, when Daisy left the Boar's Nest, knowing she would be spotted if she tried to take Dixie, she took Uncle Jesse's truck and drove to about half a mile outside Hazzard city limits where she finished off the Wild Turkey in Mrs. Huckabee's garage. She couldn't drive after that because the truck wouldn't start. _Probably Aunt Lavinia's doing._ Then, she shuddered at the thought she might have been behind the wheel had the truck cranked up.

"Well, I'm glad to know that. But it still don't excuse what you did at the radio station. You should'na said those things."

He was right, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. She was still mad at him too. Right or wrong about the time and place she ended up saying them; she meant every single word.

"You can say what you want about me, Daisy, but you should'na dragged' anybody else into it."

_Did he mean Elton or Alice Jean? Funny, she didn't remember calling her by name. But she was under the influence, so she couldn't be sure if she said stuff other than the––Dammit to hell and back! Did Elton say the loudspeaker was on?_ Now, she just groaned.

"Alice Jean's a very nice woman who's lonely livin' in Atlanta away from her family. She just needed somebody to talk to." He'd known more than his share of loneliness in Atlanta and Los Angeles.

"Yeah, well, what about Joanie at the clinic and that sappy grin you were givin' her? And Helen-come-and-get-it from the diner, or Penelope (she drawled out the name theatrically) at the library? They just need somebody to talk to? Funny how you can find plenty of women to talk to other than me. Probably a bunch of um in L.A."

"You're one to talk. What about Darcy Kincaid and Joe Ward or…or…Jude Emery?"

Enos was getting uncharacteristically sarcastic.

"Now you're talkin' ancient history. Them women I named off? They're new, and while we're engaged! B'sides, only one of those guys came close to meanin' anything to me was Jude, and he'da never got that close if..."

"If what?"

"Nothin'. Don't matter now."

"Well, them women you're talkin' about probably ain't even real anyway."

* * *

**Balladeer:** Uh-oh, ya'll.

* * *

' _Wait,' Daisy thought. 'Why would he think those women aren't real – and anyway, none of them were in this do-over. Or Alice Jean for that matter– she was same-damn-day seventy-two or three. He's still...he shouldn't…_

"What did you say?"


	12. Wibbly-wobbly Timey-wimey Stuff*

" _We dance around in a ring and suppose,  
but the secret sits in the middle and knows."_

Robert Frost

* * *

Instead of giving Daisy an answer, Enos got up, pulled the key out of his jacket pocket, and unlocked the cuff around her wrist. As soon as she was free and standing outside the jeep, he was rewarded with a hard slap across his face.

Now he had a small red handprint to go with the big red bumps. Although stunned, he wasn't completely surprised and felt partially deserving of it. Though he had made a stop at Boss's fishing cabin to 'borrow' blankets and some other supplies to make sure she was warm, he had also kept her cuffed in the front seat of her own jeep for the past three and a half hours.

She had stomped away, but now she'd rounded back on him.

"All this time. All the time I been goin' through this nightmare thinkin' I was all alone…YOU KNEW!"

He hung his head and shook it slowly. "Couldn't tell ya."

"Couldn't or wouldn't."

"You think you're the only one's been––" he choked, unable to get the words out.

"Three months, Enos. THREE MONTHS!" She crossed her arms similar to Mrs. Crabtree from Hazzard Elementary, holding a ruler in one hand and a note to his Mama and Daddy in the other.

"You don't think I know that?! An' it's not three months, it's ninety round-a-bouts, some months have thirty-one––"

"Excuse me. Are we gonna knit pick now? Ya' know, you're good at that too…changin' the subject so ya' don't have to talk about somethin'."

He got that puppy-dog look on his face that turned nearly ashen. The lump in his throat got thicker, and he felt like a first-grader being scolded for eating paste.

"Daisy. Oh, Daisy. Don'cha understand…I been livin' that nightmare too…only I was wide awake."

Daisy relaxed the hold she had on her arms slightly.

"You mean you wake up every mornin' shiverin', only ta' find Aunt Lavinia's weddin' dress hangin' on your chifforobe when you know you packed it up the night before. You stub your toe on stuff you can't even remember ever bein' in the house b'fore and get a splittin' headache 'cause there's never any damn-apsirin in the nightstand? Not to mention that my family wants to call for _those nice young men in their clean white coats to come and take me away_ every other day! That kinda livin' it too?"**

"Yeah."

She narrowed her eyes. "Really."

"I mean…I wake up on the hood of my truck, wet from dew and shiverin' cold from the damp, with my weddin' duds hanging over the front seat, and bang my head on the antenna, or the side mirror or the steering wheel or anything else I can run into. And as for people thinkin' yer' crazy…you…you oughta tryin' ta' fast talk Sheriff Rosco ninety different ways – makes me wanna commit _myself_ to the funny farm." _(Actually, it had become somewhat of a mind-sharpening game for him. Life in the 'zone' got tedious more often than not, and he needed distractions other than keeping up with whatever squirrely antic Daisy was up to on any given day.)_

That made her chuckle. But she wondered, "Hmmm, no headache?"

"Oh, that comes later when the ding-dang cricket song starts and get's inside my head."

_The song! The blankety-blank song…how many times had Elton had to play it anyway. Her only comfort was that nobody but the two of them would remember it next go-around. Wait…Enos would remember…oh...Lord._

Daisy frantically began running the last ninety same-damn-days through her head to figure out what she might have to explain, apologize for, or live down. That was, in addition to the unfortunate misadventures of that very afternoon.

"I wanted to tell ya' Daisy. But I just couldn't. Aunt Livvy––"

"How'd you know it's Aunt Lavinia?"

"Does it matter?"

"Probably not, but I still want to know."

* * *

 **Balladeer:** Seems like Daisy and Enos done forgot why they was mad at each other in the first place, don't it?

* * *

"And that's another thing, why's he always around?" Enos asked.

"Annoying, right?"

Enos looked up with a churlish expression. "Real annoyin'."

"Never mind him. I got plans on how to fix his little red wagon. We need to talk. And I mean 'talk.'"

***

For the next hour or so, they went over the events of the last eighty-nine do-overs. But there were unspoken verboten subjects they both unconsciously recognized and skirted, like why he claimed to have gotten the hives, the kiss in the boat, his leaving her wedding ring in his other pants, and ANYTHING to do with L.A.

Enos explained to Daisy how many times he'd tried to tell her he knew, but something always stopped him. Then she started in with the crazy stuff, and as much as he knew it was because she had to do it alone, the crazier her stunts got, the madder he got. He thought the tattoo, a tiny dragonfly, wasn't the _worst_ thing she'd done, but he was glad it didn't carry over into the next round-a-bout. And yes, he did appreciate the return of the spaghetti strap tank top and the Daisy Dukes.

What he didn't appreciate, at all, was her traipsin' up into the hills trying to enlist the aid of the Beaudry's preacher-with-the-questionable-scruple to get them married up.

"What did ya' think ya' were doin' tellin' him you was in a family way?"

"I never told him that."

"You did. I heard ya'"

"Where were…nevermind. I said that you and me was gonna have a baby."

"Ain't that the same thing?"

"No. It ain't the same thing. If you an' me was to get married, one day we'd have a baby. I just kinda, sorta let him think it was gonna be sooner rather than later. You want kids, right? I know you like kids, you're always volunteerin' out at the children's home…" She was saying it while watching Enos blush.

"'Course I want kids, Daisy. And I don't know who else I'd pick to be a better Mama than you. But I thought maybe you'd wanna do some other things first…like goin' to college, maybe studying plants and stuff. When you were talkin' about foragin' out where I first saw our little alien friend, it sounded like you got a real interest in that kind a' thing. I mean, your eyes got that lit up look you get when you're real happy."

_Oh…my…Gosh! The revelation hit her like Wild Turkey 'round about the fourth shot._

They discovered that they each had different names for the same thing, like the repeating days, and he called the things they could or couldn't do 'laws.' Daisy called them 'rules.' Same difference. It's all about perception, this time thing.

"Time duddin' really run in a straight line," Enos said. "That's just how we think of it 'cause it makes things easier. Like it goes off in different directions all at once and then loop-ta-loops back on itself…"

* * *

 **Balladeer wayyyy off in the background:** All the while humming the theme to _The Twilight Zone_ and reciting a litany of: _"Klatuu barada nikto" – "These are not the droids you're lookin' for" – "Lights – owwwt" – "The Shadow knows" – "It's about time, it's about space…– "It's bigger on the inside, ya'll" –"We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity"… ***_

 **Enos and Daisy:** Whoever he was, he was sort of entertaining and weirdly informative, so they ignored him.

* * *

"…I saw this illustration once where these two astronauts was in two different places out in the blackness a' space an' lookin' down on this time arrow, kinda like a loaf of bread, and one was lookin' from this direction and the other…what?"

"Nothin'." Her smile looked as if she was hiding an Easter Egg behind it.

He looked at her sideways.

"Knew you were smarter than most people 'round here think," she said.

Enos's face turned red enough one would hardly know he had hives.

"Oh, Daisy. It don't take smarts so much as readin' up on a subject yer interested in…I got that last part from one a' my comic books…now what?"

"One of these days, if we _ever_ get outta this, we're gonna work on your self-esteem 'cause I know it's hidin' in there somewhere. Meanwhile, we should start figurin' out why Aunt Lavinia's doin' this, 'cause I thought I had that part sorta figured out. Now, I ain't so sure anymore."

"Ya' know, there's been times lately when I thought maybe she was punishin' us for somethin'. Guess that mighta been part of why I was so outta sorts. But that don't make any sense, 'cause she was the sweetest woman I ever knew next to my Mama and Granny Hess. I'm just glad neither of us has to do it alone anymore. Guess we got Aunt Livvy to thank for that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, the References!:
> 
> * Description of time travel by Doctor Who (Doctor #10 played by David Tenet)
> 
> ** Song: "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha Haa!" written and performed by Jerry Samuels (billed as Napolean XIV) - Wikipedia
> 
> *** In Order: The Twilight Zone (previously referenced), "The Day the Earth Stood Still", "Star Wars", "Lights Out" a radio show from the 1930s and 40s, "The Shadow" originally a series of pulp novels from the 1930s, than reiterated numerous times in various media, "It's About Time" TV series theme from 1960s, description of "The Tardis (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space)" from Doctor Who", "The Outer Limits" (original series from 1960s) introduction message. Whew! There would have been more, but these are the ones that just popped into my head and I was starting to see spots before my eyes...


	13. Sometimes, you have to go to the brink...

" _Something we were withholding made us weak,  
until we found it in ourselves."_

" _So, all who hide too well away  
Must speak and tell us where they are."_

Robert Frost

* * *

Daisy and Enos had always been able to work together on some plan or scheme. Only when the stakes involved anteing up their hearts did things tend to go sideways—each protecting that vital organ with the tenacity of a scorpion.

Tonight, they'd put the skeleton of a plan together. Weary from the battle, they settled into quiet communion with the night – a familiar symphony of crickets, frogs, and the occasional plop of a fish breaking the water to capture an insect that had ventured too close to the surface.

The day had been warm enough for the ground to have already started to collect dew. Enos and Daisy were both comfortably tucked away under the lean-to atop the blankets Enos had 'borrowed' from Boss and close to the fire he had built while she had been out. He'd parked Dixie strategically to shield them from the cold night breeze.

When he'd needed to get her away from town, the quarry, what the folks in Hazzard County referred to as 'the swamp,' was the first place he thought of. Once upon a long time ago, they had spent hours together there. Mapping out the cracks in the still exposed cliffs leftover from quarrying marble – Enos searched for the darkest veins, the most quartz, the shiniest mica flecks, and Daisy explored how plants could root into bare rock. Those were memories from their childhood; before life intervened and Enos no longer had time for such things. Before the first time that she felt abandoned.

On the lake is where they'd talked of getting married. And he'd kissed her. Not the glancing blows she'd managed in the past by ambush – a real, warm, deep, luscious kiss filled with a hint of desire that left her…wanting more. She'd forgotten wanting more from him. No. She'd trained herself not to expect more. Her unreciprocated advances were interpreted, in her heart, to mean only one thing, and she'd forced herself to fall out of love with him. Or so she'd thought until about an hour ago. _Somewhere deep within her, while she devised ways to get him to the altar, hadn't she known all along?_ She hadn't felt so alive in the last fifteen years as she'd felt in the previous sixty minutes.

"I caught a couple of stripers while you were asleep. You hungry?" Enos asked softly.

"Yes, very much."

The look she gave him was strange and unfamiliar, even to her, and probably revealed too much. And yet, like ancient logs that are suddenly dislodged from the depths of primal lakes, the call of something long submerged had bubbled to the surface. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to contain it…or if she wanted to.

***

Reigning herself in, Daisy watched as he opened a cooler and pulled out a tray of fileted bass. Had she also blinded herself to how much she admired his form as well? Tucked or untucked, no one filled out a plaid shirt quite the way he did.

"How long was I out, anyway?"

"Long enough."

Enos returned to their plot of blankets with the filets, a grill grate, and a large pair of tongs, settling himself once again beside her. Had she not been afraid of bursting the delicate bubble they'd been allowed, she would have blurted out her revelation right then and there.

"Looks like you midnight requisitioned more than a couple of blankets from Boss's fishin' shack."

"Considerin' everything'll be back where it was before, I figure what Boss won't remember tomorrow won't hurt me."

Daisy watched his hands as he arranged the grate over the fire and set the fish on it.

"Enos."

"Uh-huh?" he asked, intent on placing the fish over coals that would achieve the perfect sear and sizzle.

She hesitated, but only because she was about to broach one of the topics they'd both been dancing around.

"Maybe I should do the grilling."

"Won't take very long. You need to rest."

"No…I mean, should you be gettin' so close to the heat like that? You're just gonna aggravate those blisters."

He examined his hands. "Don't seem to bother me as much as they did this afternoon."

"Your face doesn't seem quite as blistery, either."

"Come to think of it, I ain't felt like scratchin' for a couple of hours. Seems like that's all I been doin' the last ninety days."

"That potion the nurse gave you didn't help?"

"I only got to use it for the one night. Next mornin' it wouldn't be there anymore, and I'd have to go through the process of goin' back to the clinic and gettin' it all over again."

"How many times did you have to go––?"

"Aw, now Daisy. Don't start that again. I toldja' I don't even think Joanne's real."

"But she said you helped her with a tire a week before, I mean before you went to the clinic the first time."

"But I don't remember her bein' there the first time because she wasn't, not the real day. Miss Aggie, the usual receptionist, was there. I was just goin' along with it 'cause way back in that round-a-bout, I mean do-over, I wasn't allowed to let on to you…You know…"

"That you were repeatin' our weddin' day too?"

He nodded and then, knowing the fish needed looking after or it would be inedible, turned his attention back to the fire. No matter how you sliced it, Daisy knew they both were thinking about what it meant – that his blisters didn't seem quite so pronounced or bother him as much tonight.

"I wonder why Aunt Lavinia's lettin' us do this now? Together, I mean. Bein' out here and all. I've been expectin' to blank out any second and find myself back in my bed at the farm."

"Me too. Only on the hood a' my truck. Maybe it was gettin' outta hand." He looked down at her right wrist, still slightly reddened from the chafing of his handcuffs, and brushed his fingers over it lightly until he got self-conscious and went back to staring into the glowing embers.

"I was gonna kidnap _you_ once," she said. "I was gonna cuff _you_ to Dixie, drive to Hazzard airfield and take off in that plane we had waitin' to fly us off to our honeymoon. Only I was gonna get us as far away from Hazzard as the plane's fuel would take us."

He actually smiled at the thought. "It would'na worked, though."

"I know. Rule Number Two."

"Yeah."

"And Number Five."

"Nothin's gonna be a walk on the…"

"Beach?" she finished.

***

Daisy insisted on cleaning up after the fish had been consumed. The task, no matter how paltry, gave her time to think about a few things. She'd gone these past ninety days convinced she was the one carrying the load, but she was doing a lot of blind leaping. Enos was carrying it for both of them, looking after her. Like always.

"What time do you usually wake up?"

"Different times, but hardly ever before 4:45 or after 6:15. Why? You think it means somethin'?"

"No, maybe. I don't know. But that's not why I asked. I was thinkin' I could be out here tomorrow morning, let's say 4:30, 'cause I wake up at all hours, with a thermos of hot coffee and a warm blanket."

"I appreciate that, Daisy. But I wouldn't want you to have to––"

"I won't be able to sleep knowin' I'll wake up in a nice warm bed while you're out here in the damp cold."

"Then, I guess I'll see you in the morning."

While Enos laid back on the blanket and closed his eyes, Daisy's mind sank slowly back into the downward spiral she'd taken the past three hundred and sixty hours. Since she fled his room that night that he told her he was going back to L.A., their avoidance of each other after that hadn't exactly been mutual. She was only lying to herself that it was. She had tried to get back to that moment just before she had bolted ever since. Each time she failed had made her more desperate and ended in a meltdown of epic proportion – rods exposed, leaking into the atmosphere, and poisoning everything around her. There were no do-overs for failure in Aunt Lavinia's time-out – and the sheer weight of not being able to control it or change it flattened her.

Lying next to him, she was unaware of dropping into sleep.

*

_From far away, she could hear her Uncle Jesse's voice, "You were such a headstrong girl when you were growin' up. Still are in some ways. Always leapin' before ya' look. Your aunt used to say that you'd rue that one a' these days."_

" _You think I'm gonna rue marryin' Enos?"_

" _I'm afraid maybe y'are, but not for the reasons I'm thinkin' you're thinkin'. It's what your Aunt Lavinia was frettin' about's got me worried. She loved you very much, but she was fond a' Enos too. Real fond. When his Mama died, and Otis was out on a run, and Enos stayed with us a lot…"_

" _I know, Uncle Jesse. He was like a part of the family."_

" _Yes…and no…Luke was older, and Bo was a youngun, so you and Enos spent a lot of time together."_

_Daisy smiled at the memories of running the woods, hunting for wild blackberries, exploring the cracks in the rocks at the old quarry…_

_Jesse continued, "Then you two started gettin' older, and Enos, well, he had to grow up fast when Otis died. He got serious about what he should do with his life, and you just stayed headstrong. Not that that's a bad thing. I always admired that you were kinda free-spirited. But before she died, Lavinia was always knittin' worry lines that you weren't takin' life serious enough."_

_She remembered now how Lavinia had tried to warn her._

" _Daisy, my sweet little girl, you gotta stop this stubborn willfulness, and tryin' to make everybody bend to fit how you want um to be while you refuse to bend at all. I'm afraid for you, child. Afraid some ill wind is gonna come along and break you cause you refused to believe it's possible. We're_ _all_ _breakable, honey—even the strongest of us. You have to learn to be the one to give way sometimes, baby. Otherwise, you're gonna lose the thing you love the most, the one thing you can't survive this life on Earth as a whole person without. And it's gonna hollow you out inside, just like that rotten oak down in the meadow gettin' cut up for firewood. Once that happens, the first stiff breeze will have no problem at all knockin' you flat and leavin' you with nothin' but a broken spirit and an empty heart."_

_*_

In a cold sweat, her breathing labored, Daisy jerked upright from the blanket.

"Daisy…Daisy, what's wrong?" Enos took hold of her arms.

"I should have stayed."

She saw the confusion in his eyes.

"I should have stayed that night…when you told me about L.A."

"It's alright, Daisy. I wish ya had, too. We might notta had to go through these last fifteen days. But I understand why you didn't."

"But why? Why should you understand? I should have stayed. I should have screamed at you…We should've had a knock-down-drag-out fight right there in Mrs. Oxford's Boarding House…so loud she'd have to call Rosco. I should have told you how mad I was...how much…"

"Cause you thought I was goin' away…'cause 'it's what I'm good at?'"

"I didn't mean it…I didn't."

"You did. An' you're right…You…and Aunt Livvy. I'm just a big coward."

"How can you say that? You captured a killer, and then…" her voice hitched, "…then risked your life by…he could have killed you."

"Scanlon couldn't do nothin' to me but take my life."

It was the weight of what he hadn't said that made her head drop into his chest. He could feel her body convulse against him as tears fell on his shirt. He put his arms gently around her, more afraid now to let go. Neither of them knew how long, but he held her until she went limp, and he thought she was asleep again.

"What did you mean," she asked, still sunk into him, "about not havin' to go through the last fifteen days if I'd stayed that night?"

"If you promise to calm down and not to run while I get somethin', I'll tell you."

She nodded her head against his chest, and he gently let go of his hold on her. She watched as he rooted around in the bushes where he'd pitched the small box that had tumbled from the glove compartment.

Kneeling in front of her as she swiped the wet from her cheeks, he said, "You asked me how I knew it was Aunt Livvy who was runnin' this game…and I didn't give you an answer."

She nodded, focused on the ring box, but he kept it closed.

"If you'da stayed that night, I'd been able to tell ya'…even though they were keepin' a spot open for me at the Academy, I was never even considerin' goin' back unless you went with me."

She studied him with what he interpreted, incorrectly, as disbelief in her eyes.

"You can call Turk or even Lieutenant Broggi. I told um both more than a week ago…I mean, back in real-time…I wasn't gonna commit to anything if you didn't come with the deal. They'd remember because that was before––"

"And…if I didn't go with you?"

"Then I'da just stayed here."

"But Rosco said stayin' here in Hazzard was killin' your spirit...that you belonged back at Metro."

"When did he say that?"

"After I ran out that night, I couldn't get back to you…so I talked to him."

"He had no business sayin' anything ta you about that. And when we get outta this, me an' him's gonna have a sit-down."

Daisy wasn't really listening now. She was focused on something else. "You were gonna ask me to go with you."

"Daisy, I came back ta Hazzard 'cause I missed you so much, I couldn't live another day not bein' able to see ya'. Even if…even if you could never be mine."

She laughed and said something, faintly, but he couldn't make it out.

"Daisy, I don't understand what you're say––"

"I said, I was always yours…you big dope! I wish you'd kissed me, just once, in the last fifteen years the way you kissed me in the boat…'cause if you had––"

Daisy got her wish when he pulled her lips onto his and lit them both on fire – a conflagration long, long, long overdue.


	14. Carts and Horses

" _Our life depends on everything's recurring  
till we answer from within.  
The thousandth time may prove the charm."_

Robert Frost

* * *

The starfield overhead was painted with twinkling glitter on a canvas of black indigo – peaceful, serene. The dew-crusted floor of the lean-to underneath the star canopy looked as if a laundromat had exploded and deposited remnants of pants, socks, shoes, piles of rust-stained lace, and unmentionables around the two incendiaries huddled in a nest of blankets and patchwork quilts.

With Daisy snuggled in the crook of his arm, Enos wanted to be awake for every second he could, afraid she would be ripped out of his arms any moment, back to her bed at the farm, and he'd be stretched out, cold and damp on the hood of his truck. Afraid they wouldn't get another chance.

Afraid – the way he'd been Friday night. After trying on his fancy wedding suit, he'd practiced in front of the mirror on his dresser, with the photo of Daisy ever watchful, saying, "I do."

_But should he? Should he say, "I do'?_

It was a question that had etched worry lines in his face and caused him to scratch at the hives that he'd contracted, not from being happy, but from being scared to death that he was leading the only thing he loved more than his own life into something she might one day regret. He knew he could 'survive' without her, but if he hurt her, ruined her life, his soul would crack, and his heart would implode like those stars that collapse. Then, he'd be no good to himself or anyone else.

So, he took the ring box from the old humidor Aunt Livvy had given him for his valuables, put his suit in the truck, and drove to the only place that would give him any peace to think about whether or not he was doing the right thing – the 'swamp.' So many doubts, so little time. He had a glimmer of hope that Daisy did love him. He'd begun to see signs of it before the robbery. She hadn't dated anyone in more than a year, not since she'd stayed with him, under his protection. She hadn't known what that night cost him, with only a thin wall of blankets between them. He'd even gone as far as to make plans…but then the robbery, the threats made against Daisy…and everything he'd planned and hoped for was overshadowed by doubt.

He didn't want to wake up one day, or for _her_ to wake up one day, and figure out she'd married him out of pity, or charity, or guilt. That she'd been willing to marry him at all, to keep him from going to jail, was a testament to why he loved her...so much. This mind-bending trip in time had been light as a feather compared to the weight he was carrying Friday night. He couldn't have stopped the tears, shackled for so long, if he'd wanted to.

He'd fallen to sleep on the hood of his truck, searching for shooting stars.

Waking that Saturday morning, that first Saturday morning, he'd looked at the time and tried to make it back to his room at Mrs. Oxford's. But, as fate would have it, Rosco had caught up with him on his way there, blue lights flashing and siren blaring and shanghaied him for some fool breakfast bachelor party at the Sheriff's station. It went on long enough that they'd had to go straight to the Boar's Nest to get ready for the ceremony.

_Would he ever get the chance to tell her why her wedding ring was still in his other pants on his bed? If Daisy forgave him for that, would she ever forgive him for being the cause of all this…all the days spent thinking she was alone, thinking she was going crazy?_

_He didn't remember wishing, exactly, not out loud or even in his head. That ding-dang cricket song every morning was a sure enough sign to him that he must have._

He had no idea that Daisy, who was awake and pressing herself tighter against him, was wondering the same about the wish she had made, that her Aunt Lavinia could be with her on her wedding day…

The why and how of it didn't seem to matter to Enos anymore, but he asked anyway.

"Why did you try so hard to get us married up these past months?"

"Deep down, I knew where I belonged. Just too stubborn to admit it…wanted you to be the one to bend…"

"…you wanted a caveman, and ya' got me."

"No…I wanted you to step up and just say how…"

"I love you, Daisy, will ya' marry me?"

"Yeah, somethin' like…" She was still sleepy. "…What?"

Putting his finger to her lips, he began rifling through the clothes again, reaching under the edges of the blankets.

"Enos, what––?"

"Shush."

He had never shushed her before. It was kind of exhilarating, _although he better not get used to it._

Finding the thing he was looking for, he rolled back over to present her with the ring box once again.

"Enos. Spit it out for pity's sake! The suspense is killin' me."

The ring inside the little brown leather box wasn't anything you would see in the window at Cartier's or even in a display case at Hazzard Jewelers. It was a simple, fragile setting with two small pearls, one off-white and one silverish, on a thin band with twisted ribbons of gold and silver.

"Aunt Livvy gave this to me a long time ago, just before she passed. It belonged to her grandmother. When I said I couldn't take somethin' like this 'cause it should go to you, she said, 'when the time is right, son, _you'll_ give it to her.'"

***

Later, feeling the euphoria of having lost themselves in each other once again, Enos was enjoying the touch of Daisy's bare skin against his, wearing his engagement ring, when he finally opened his eyes.

There was something strange about the sky.

"Daisy."

"Hmmm?" She wasn't ready to open her eyes yet.

"Daisy?"

"Umm."

"Do you know what day it is?"

"Ninety-one, a thousand. Don't care…now get back under the cover b'fore you catch your death. I wanna snuggle some more."

He leaned down and kissed her ear and whispered, "It's Sunday."

Took a few seconds for that to register, but when it did, Daisy sprang up, nearly clipping Enos's nose in the process.

"Why do you…Sunday?"

He pointed to the southern sky and said, "Look."

Still didn't register.

"You see where Orion is?"

"No. You know teasin' me's not gonna get you very far if you expect more…"

"Daisy, you know _why_ you don't see Orion?"

"'Cause it ain't there?..." Then it hit her. "It's not there."

Enos hurriedly searched in the garment debris field and found his pocket watch, the one Uncle Jesse and Aunt Livvy had given him the last Christmas she was with them. Finding it, he flipped open the cover.

"11:59."

The second hand wasn't moving. He turned the crown enough to give the watch a full wind and waited. The second hand still didn't move. Then, in case the second hand was just stuck, they counted one Mississippi, two Mississippi, and on until reaching sixty-five Mississippi (just for insurance). The time stayed the same – 11:59.

"How long…? Daisy pulled the blanket up around her (because Enos had noticed the physical effects the chill air was having on her and was getting that look in his eye again). "Enos. Focus." She pointed to the watch.

"Yes, Ma'am," he said, with chill-pinked cheeks and a grin.

"What time do you suppose it is? I mean, on Sunday."

"From the position of Cancer and the twins, I'd say around 3:00 am."

A faint glow behind the mountain hinted that the waning crescent moon had risen and was hiding behind the thickness of pine boughs.

"And we're still here…" She had to let that sink in. Ninety days is a long time, and she'd become conditioned to that timeline and lowered her expectations to somewhere around zero. "Possum on a gum-bush, Enos, you know what this means?" She was still in too much shock to get excited. And, without a stitch on, she wasn't inclined to jump up and down.

Enos swallowed hard. "Yeah…Uncle Jesse's gonna kill _me_."

"Oh, Enos. He's not gonna do anything of the sort…Luke, on the other hand…"

"Oh, that makes me feel a whole _lot_ better."

"Just kidding."

"Not funny." He was starting to look a little pekid.

"We got the license and the engagement ring, so that kind of makes us half-married, doesn't it?"

_**Sunday, February 3, 1985** _

Enos and Daisy arrived at the Duke farm by the time Enos's pocket watch, having regained its forward momentum, read 6:15 am. They couldn't very well go back into town on a Sunday dressed as they were. Enos was okay in his slacks and jacket, but with Lavinia's wedding dress, being in the condition it was, Daisy had only his plaid shirt on over her underwear. Good thing he was six foot two and partial to long shirt-tails. They were also avoiding town because there had been no restart of the same-damn day. There was much discussion about old timelines and new timelines before they vacated the lean-to love nest. They decided to operate under the assumption that they had changed the chain of events and, since their arrow of time was moving forward again, everyone would remember what happened yesterday at the Boar's Nest and at WHOGG.

Daisy had suggested they first go by the bakery, via the back alley entrance, of course. She could borrow a uniform from Sarah Jane, who was already at work making pastries for the Sunday morning crowd. For someone who was hard at work at 4 am every day, Sarah Jane Bascom was the un-busiest body in Hazzard County. She'd be glad to help them out, and the HazzardNet wouldn't start buzzing at the speed of light.

Enos said, "No." His shirt fit her like a dress, so she was covered up decent enough…and he just wanted to get it over with. "Puttin' it off ain't gonna make it any easier on me. Besides, Rosco's started to get real fond a' Miss Sarah Jane's bear claws of a mornin', and he's the last one we want to meet up with right now."

He wouldn't allow her to smooth things over at the farm before he jumped into the lion's den either. The fact that Daisy was a grown woman wouldn't cut the mustard. She was still Uncle Jesse's little girl and Bo and Luke's only girl cousin.

So, there they were, sitting in Dixie, Daisy dressed in his shirt with a blanket wrapped around her, him shirtless under his jacket, and Lavinia's wedding dress folded as neatly as possible in Dixie's back seat. As if he wasn't nervous enough, the dress was missing six of those tiny satin-covered buttons – victims of the conflagration. They had located five of them, but that sixth button must have been sucked into a gopher hole. They gave up the search around 5:30. Daisy had wrapped the five that were salvaged in a piece of torn lace. The intention being to have Lester at the dry cleaners launder the dress the best he could, repair the torn lace, and sew the buttons back on.

"Well," Enos said, "Have you figured out what we're gonna tell Uncle Jesse about the dress and…them." He pointed to the physical evidence clutched in her hand.

"He's gonna be too busy pullin' Luke offa you to worry about the dress or how these buttons got separated from it."

"Haha."

"It's a little funny."

"No…it ain't."

***

Inside the house, Bo had heard the jeep pull in and was alerting Luke and Uncle Jesse.

"I told you two she'd be alright as long as she was with Enos," Jesse said, pulling his left overall strap over his shoulder. "He wouldn't let nothin' happen to her."

About the time Enos and Daisy climbed out of Dixie, Daisy's blanket fell back, and she had to reposition it.

"Why's she wearin' Enos's shirt?" Bo said with a brand of naivete unique to Beauregard Duke.

Luke rolled his eyes and smiled at his uncle. "Should we get the shotgun?"

"No, we shouldn't get the shotgun. Likely he's already sufferin' enough just from the anticipation a' walkin' through that door."

"He does appear ta' be a little green around the gills," Luke quipped. "Looks like she's wearin' a ring, though. Maybe we'll have us a weddin' after all."

Daisy and Enos had no clue that Rosco, who had been searching the county high and low for them through the night, had gone by the quarry in the wee hours of the morning and seen a sight he never thought he would. Of course, he hadn't shared the details with Jesse when he'd called him to tell him Enos and Daisy were okay, but after a lot of hem-hawing and a good measure of dancing around the intimate particulars, he finally told him, "Let me put it this way, Jesse. The weddin' mighta' got postponed…but I'm pretty sure the honeymoon went on as scheduled."

Luke had just guessed correctly. And now they'd have to explain it to Bo. Not that he was thick, just unwilling to accept something he never thought possible. He'd had less trouble accepting that little alien.

"Ain't no maybe about it. Just 'cause the cart won the race, don't mean the horse won't catch up," Jesse said, and then the leprechaun in him took over. "But I guess it wouldn't hurt to make him sweat like a bridegroom for a few minutes. Now, you two git on in the parlor an' act like you got some sense."


	15. Song of the Cricket

" _Haven't you heard what we have lived to learn?  
Nothing so new –something we had forgotten:  
I wasn't going to tell you and I mustn't.  
The best way is to come up hill with me  
And have our fire and laugh and be afraid."_

Robert Frost

* * *

_**Friday, February 8, 1985** _

Luke passed through the kitchen and grabbed a slice of ham off the platter. "Hey, where'd Daisy get off to?"

Jesse told him Daisy was upstairs doing some last-minute packing.

Bo returned the plate he'd just dried to the cupboard and said, "Least her and Enos ain't out there in the swing neckin' tonight."

"And you and that gaggle of females you got on a string don't neck?" Luke teased.

"That's different. That ain't…weird. Don't know if I'll ever get used to it. Just don't seem natural."

Daisy showed up in the doorway. "What don't seem natural?"

"Nothin'."

"Enos and Turk still out on the porch?" she asked.

Luke said, "Been out there for a while. Probably talkin' about L.A. or Enos's Academy trainin'."

"More like the _Lakers_ game would be my bet," Daisy mused. While Enos lived in Los Angeles, Turk had turned him into an avid Lakers fan, and he'd followed them with rabid allegiance ever since.

She sidled up next to Bo at the sink and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for doin' the dishes."

"Guess we gotta get used to doin' a lot a' things around here without you."

She gave him another kiss and added a hug.

"Why's he goin' anyway?" Bo asked her.

"'Cause that's where he belongs."

Bo didn't dispute that. They'd all agreed long ago that Enos was wasted in Hazzard. It was why Daisy felt she had to go with him right off that was getting his goat. After all, from what he'd been able to gather, she'd practically be an Academy-widow for six months.

"No, I don't mean back to Los Angeles. Why go through all that Academy trainin' and not straight back ta' Metro? They're not makin' him go through it. Cletus said he heard Rosco and Enos talkin', and Enos said he wouldn't go back no other way."

"Well…there was one other condition," Daisy said quietly, then squeezed him tight. "Oh, Bo. Don't ever change. My heart couldn't take it."

Bo squeezed her back. "But," he said, after some deliberation, "you and Enos sure have changed, though. Hard ta' get used to."

"We haven't changed, Bo," she sighed. "You just never saw us before."

"Huh?"

Daisy smiled, to herself mostly, and headed toward the front door.

"Now what's that s'posed ta' mean?" He was looking at his older cousin for an answer.

Luke waited until Daisy was outside before telling Bo, "What she means is, what we been seein' for a long time's just them on the outside. Like an egg. All ya' see is the shell till ya' crack it open. It's the stuff on the inside that makes the omelet."

Jesse, who had been content with his own thoughts through the exchange, patted Luke approvingly on the shoulder, then retired to his favorite chair in the parlor to rest up. Tomorrow would be chocked full of activity, what with the wedding and reception and seeing his children off to make new stories for themselves.

Made him think of when he and Lavinia first started out on their life together.

_**Saturday, February 9, 1985 – Wedding Day, 2.0** _

In February, Georgia tends to be wet, with rain showers draining from gray cotton skies of an afternoon. Which was one of the reasons they had set the wedding ceremony for 10:00 am. Laying under warm covers, Daisy could feel the dampness already making itself at home in the old house. The park-bench weather prognosticators called for rain later in the day, and she hoped it would just hold off until after the reception. She and Enos might have to drive in it, but they wouldn't have to get married in it.

In truth, though, she didn't care if they had a flat-out gully washer as long as she and Enos were able to leave the county – together.

The only problem with the February climate was that it was infused with pollen and everyone's sinuses sent them for the aspirin and the antihistamine. The rain and atmospheric pressure just exacerbated the misery. Sitting up, the pressure under her brows and behind her nose sent her to the drawer in the nightstand.

She froze. _Did she really need aspirin that badly?_

A quick check of the wardrobe assured her that the wedding dress, restored (almost), hung on the front just where she'd left it last night.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she said to herself, _'Now you're just bein' silly.'_

Sliding out of bed, intent on getting the antihistamine from the bathroom, she headed toward the door. She reached down to pull her slipper over her heel, something new she'd adopted to guard against toe injuries, and came smack up into the edge of the wardrobe door.

Panic set in as it jolted her memory. She'd been singing some song in her head just before she'd fully awakened. _What was it? Double and triple damn! What the hell was it?_

Aunt Lavinia's double-bell alarm clock had been moved.

' _Right. You did that when you reached for the drawer. It's okay. It's okay. Breathe.'_

The time read 11:59…sending her down the rabbit hole...

… _no…she wouldn't do this to us again…she wouldn't…she…_

The room started to spin, her eyes rolled back, and she crumpled to the floor in a heap.

***

Daisy's eyes fluttered open to find Enos sitting on the bed beside her, gently holding a cool washcloth on her forehead with three discombobulated figures looking on. Tears were gushing down her cheeks when she grabbed Enos's collar and pulled him down so she could whisper in his ear.

"It's happening again."

"Daisy, honey. Nothin's happenin' today 'cept our weddin'."

She still held him in a chokehold.

Jesse said, gently, "Daisy, let the man get a breath."

She relaxed her grip.

"It's okay, Uncle Jesse," Enos said. "Ya'll mind givin' us a few minutes?"

Over Luke and Bo's protests, Jesse shooed them from the room and closed the door, taking one last look before he closed it behind them.

There was still a hint of panic in Daisy's eyes when Enos looked back at her. "You near scared us to death."

"Enos…I'm scared."

"Me too. Big step we're takin'. If you changed your mind…or wanna wait a little longer…maybe till I graduate from the Acad––"

"No! Absolutely not! I mean, I haven't changed my mind, an' I sure as hell don't wanna wait any longer. But things started happenin', and I was afraid it was startin' all over again…bein' trapped in a reapeatin' day, and not bein' able to be together for so long…"

"What kinda things?"

"I woke up with a headache, I remember hearin' a song in my head just before, but I can't remember it now, I hit my head on the chifforobe, then the clock said 11:59…"

Enos pulled the clock from the nightstand and showed it to her. The time was 7:36.

"But it said…"

"You were dreamin', honey."

"If I was, it was a nightmare. What about the headache and hittin' my head?"

"Half the population a' Georgia woke up with a headache this mornin', Daisy. It's pollen season, and you always stubbed your toe, remember? I'm the one got a knot on my head every mornin'."

"Then what about the song?"

"Can you hum it for me?"

"I don't remember it enough. But I think…this time…it was a pretty song. A happy one. Not like…"

"Look, Daisy. There's nothin' goin' on here, but a bunch a' people who love you bein' scared outta their wits when they heard you hit the floor."

"You heard me?"

He smiled. "No. Luke called me. Said I needed to get over here right away. You near scared _me_ half to death when I saw you layin' here. But Doc Appleby was by, and he said the bump shouldn't be nothin' to worry about and that you should be just fine. Said it was more likely the party last night that made you faint."

"But I didn't have anything to drink. I made sure a' that."

"You didn't eat much of anything either."

"No, I guess I didn't. When did Doc get back in?"

"Last night. Said he didn't wanna miss the weddin'. At least you're askin' questions that make sense now."

"Uncle Jesse and Bo and Luke probably think I need those men in the white coats again."

"You know they don't remember that part."

"Yeah, I keep forgetting. Hard to keep the ducks all lined up."

"Me and Turk better get on so we can get ready. You sure you're okay?"

"I'm okay. But will you do one thing for me?"

He leaned over and kissed her. "I'll do whatever you want."

Smiling, she said, "Have Cletus or somebody guard Dixie. I don't want anybody sabotagin' her."

Although he thought about protesting, he understood her concerns. "Whatever you say, almost- wife."

Turk, Jesse, and the boys were waiting for him downstairs. After assuring them that Daisy was fine, he and Turk left to get ready.

On the way out, he was mumbling, "She loves me. She really does love me."

Bo, ever a work in progress, remarked, "He just now figurin' that out?"

***

Cletus thought he would add a little intrigue to the task Enos had given him, hiding in the bushes to spy instead of just guarding Daisy's jeep outright. His life wasn't fascinating, so it was the little things.

But he'd been there for half an hour already, and the excitement wore off. Nodding a little, he snapped back to find Miss Tisdale lurking suspiciously around Dixie. He sprang into action, nearly frightening the wits out of her.

"Oh, Miss Tisdale, ma'am. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean ta' rattle ya' like that."

"It's alright, Cletus. Takes more'n that ta' rattle this old girl. What're you doin' out here anyway? Shouldn't you be somewhere givin' out phony parkin' tickets?"

"Uncle J.D. gave me the day off so's I can go ta' the weddin'."

"Mr. Hogg done got mushy in his old age?"

"Nah. He's gonna make more outta parkin' fees an' he'd ever make givin'…Ahem…What are you doin' here Miss Emma? The weddin's not for another hour."

"Oh, I was just leavin' Daisy and Enos a little weddin' present." She held tight to the bags behind her back. "Just a little somethin' to make sure Daisy gets that college diploma."

"Well, that's real sweet, Miss Emma, but if it rains, it might get wet. So might be better if you leave it inside, don'tcha think?" He assumed it was of a monetary nature. "Or durin' the money dance?"

"I s'pose you're right. Now you behave yourself, Cletus. And watch out for the real hooligans, you hear. Don't want anything ruinin' things for them two."

"Don't you worry, Miss Emma. Cletus Hogg's on the job."

"Well, that's nice," she said, backing away from him, then mumbled under her breath, "I'm the danged postmistress. I can mail um the rest."

Of course, she would take a number before doing so. Wouldn't do to break her own rules.

***

Considering the recent history, everybody in Hazzard was on pins and needles waitin' to see 'will they, or won't they?'

The Methodist Church was festooned with white roses and yellow wildflowers, and a sprinkling of daisies. The bustle of activity in the bride's dressing room was nothing to the nervous activity in the groom's.

Enos asked Turk for the fourth time if his tie was straight, the third time if his boutonniere was pinned on right, and the sixth time if Turk was sure he had Daisy's wedding ring in his pocket. Luke was enjoying the show, as well as the nervous pitch Enos's voice had taken on since they arrived. Bo wasn't entirely on-board with the whole idea yet (that would take more than a week of gettin' used to), and Rosco was fiddling with the basket that Flash would waddle down the aisle with carrying the ring pillow. As much as Rosco protested, no one trusted Flash with the actual rings.

Bertha Jo, Miss Tisdale and Sarah Jane stood back and admired how well Daisy's Aunt Lavinia's dress had been restored.

"Took nearly a miracle," Daisy said, "but Lester, bless his heart…he worked all week to get everything back the way it was. Except for this one place where we had to put a bow. (It covered a spot that had been torn and lost somewhere between Mrs. Huckabee's garage and WHOGG.)

Daisy felt for Enos's ring, tied securely in the secret pocket next to her heart. Then, she moved her engagement ring from her left to her right ring finger. The ring was a pretty good match to the wedding bands they had picked and would still use. She would transfer it back after Enos put the wedding band on her left ring finger.

When Jesse came to collect her, he stood admiring the woman she had become and said, "Daisy, honey. You got that lit up look you get when you're real happy."

"Oh, Uncle Jesse." She ran into his arms and surrounded him with hers. "I'm so sorry about the dress."

"Now, you stop apologizin'. If your aunt's dress had to be sacrificed for you to find happiness, then I know she'd understand."

She gave him another hug.

"I'll never doubt your Aunt Lavinia's womanly intuition again. She said that you two was destined ta' be together. And the only thing was gonna stand in your way––"

"…was us?"

He nodded.

"I love you, Uncle Jesse." She looked heavenward. "And I love you too, Aunt Lavinia. Thank you."

Having given way of late to a general weepiness she'd always dismissed as foolish or affectatious, Daisy was sure her Uncle Jesse didn't understand the full meaning of the glistening over her eyes. Of course, she doubted many other brides, if any, had traveled the road she and Enos had been sent down to arrive at this moment in time.

"We love you too, sweet girl. Now, we gotta get a move on if I'm gonna walk you down the aisle and give ya' away."

She hugged him again, and they made their way to the church's foyer, where Lulu was making sure everybody was lined up in their proper order. Lulu, the Matron of Honor, and Daisy's bridesmaids wore yellow dresses of their own choice. Flash waddled down first, with the ring pillow tucked neatly in the basket he held in his mouth, followed by the flower girl and then Lulu. Luke escorted Bertha Jo, while Bo took Miss Tisdale's arm. Rosco beamed with Sarah Jane Bascom on his arm. (Her bear claws weren't the only reason he frequented the bakery.) Then, the doors closed. Daisy and Jesse moved in front of them, ready for the walk down the aisle.

When the ushers opened the doors, Daisy was met with a sanctuary filled to the brim – standing room only. Reverend Tucker had enlisted two volunteer fire department members to count heads, so they didn't exceed the fire code. The overflow was already waiting at the reception.

When the Reverend Mr. Tucker asked if there were any objections to this marriage, the attendees held their breath. When he said the words "I now pronounce you husband and wife," there was a collective exhale…followed by much fanning of faces...and some clapping.

***

At the reception, and after the wedding couple's first dance, everyone was asked to get up and cut a rug. Enos tried to hold on to Daisy as much as possible, but it wouldn't be polite to keep her all to himself. He'd get that chance in a few hours. But he stayed close to her with whatever partner he ended up with.

He was dancing with Sarah Jane when Rosco came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. Enos nearly leaped out of his skin.

"Jiminy Crickets, Sheriff! You scared ten years off me."

"Mind if I take a whirl with Miss Sarah Jane, Dipstick? So she duddn't get trampled on by your size thirteens?"

"Sure. Sheriff. 'Bout time I found my wife and danced with her again."

He turned, only to come face to face with Daisy, her arms crossed and with a 'Really?' expression on her face.

"The Cricket song. _That's_ what you woke up to every mornin'?"

"What can I say, Mrs. Strate? You married a simple boy with simple dreams."

"Mr. Strate. You're about as simple as a Rubik's Cube. But I love ya' anyway."

He gathered her up in his arms, swung her around, then kissed her well and proper, right there on the dance floor.

A voice from deep within Daisy whispered in her mind, and she knew it was whispering to Enos as well.

" _It was now or never, my sweet children. You had reached what folks out here call the divergent point, that place where your arrows of time part company and, if they don't join together, they go off in different directions, never to merge again. Use the time you have from this point wisely, my loves."_

***

Daisy returned from her last dance with Rosco to warn Enos they needed to get ready to leave. The festivities lasted for hours for the wedding guests, (folks in Hazzard don't need much excuse to throw a hoedown) but the wedding couple had to leave by 2:30 pm if they were going to make Birmingham by nightfall. Turk had left earlier because he had a flight back to L.A. right after the ceremony. Another reason the wedding was scheduled early. He'd only been able to make it in for Friday and Saturday.

Since she and the Sheriff seemed to be doing a lot of conversing and little dancing, Enos asked his wife, "What'd you and Sheriff Rosco have your heads t'gether about?" He eyed her with the suspicion he'd have given someone facing him across a table in an interrogation.

"Nothin'. Just doin' a little wagon repair work."

Enos's speculation on what she meant by that remark was substantiated when Rosco grabbed some guy in a burnt-orange shirt and black vest who was stuffing his face with Lulu's wedding fare and cuffed him.

"What did _I_ do?" the man asked.

"Crashin' a weddin' where you're not invited, for starters. An' impersonatin' a country star for 'nother."

"But I am a country star! I'm the Balladeer. I'm just not allowed to show my face, only my hands." He spread his hands out for Rosco to examine. "Just let me go get my gi-tar, and I'll prove it. I got a contract an' everything."

"You must be drunk and disorderly, too. 'Cause Hazzard don't have no 'balladeer.' And you might sound a lot like...you-know-who, but we take our country stars real serious here in Hazzard an' I got it on good authority, you _ain't_ him."

[Wow! A Duke had been elevated to 'good authority' status.]

As Rosco led the man away through the gawkers, Enos could barely hear the guy's continued protests because Daisy was laughing so hard.

"Aw, Daisy. You shouldna' done that."

"Why not? You said he was 'real annoyin'.'"

"I know. But the man's gotta make a livin' like the rest of us." Enos would have schooled her on the fact that crashin' a weddin' or impersonatin' a country star wasn't an arrestin' offense without some monetary gain. Even it was, it would be a misdemeanor. _But this_ _was_ _Hazzard, after all._

"Oh, honey," Daisy cooed. "Rosco won't be able to keep him long. Just till we get away from Hazzard. I got me a feelin' that once we cross that county line," _(and she'd sure as heck feel better once they did)_ , "We won't need to worry about his comments anymore. He'll be able to prove who he is…and mind you, I still ain't completely convinced…an' Rosco'll have to let him go."

***

Daisy changed into her goin'-away outfit with more satisfaction than she'd had dressing in the wedding gown, grateful for all the milestones they could check off the list.

After Daisy had thrown the bridal bouquet, snagged by Sarah Jane, and Enos's adept removal of the garter, which hit ole' Rosco squarely in the face, they bid everyone goodbye.

When they left, no voices followed them, except their own.

But as fate would have it, sure enough, about the time they got near enough to the Hazard County line to spit over into the next county, it started to rain, and Dixie's roof began to leak. They parked under the Sweetwater Overpass so Enos could inspect the damage. While drying off the area around the tear, he asked Daisy to get the repair kit out and see she could find some duct tape.

"Ya' find any, honey."

"Not yet…still lookin'. I think there might be some under my seat."

There was a long pause, and Enos stuck his head in the passenger window.

"Everything okay, Daisy?"

She began to laugh hysterically.

"Daisy, what's so funny, now?" he asked, a little concerned because she had begun to cackle.

Then, he looked in her lap at a plastic bag that held about four hundred or so small, flat, square packages in a variety of colors. Apparently, the little pixie had managed to elude Cletus's eagle-eye for at least a year's worth of prevention, and Miss Emma was hell-bent on Daisy finishing college.

**_**The End?**_ **

* * *

**Balladeer** : Well, like folks around here say, 'Don't that bring the cream to the top?' Now, ya'll wuddin' thinkin' ole' Rosco could hold me, were ya'? Like all the heavies that find themselves in Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane's jail… _I_ escaped. So, ya'll buckle up, 'cause La La Land'll never be the same when those two get ta' town.*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> References:
> 
> * Although the name of a recent movie, Los Angeles started being referred to as La La Land in the 1970s, and more specifically to Hollywood.


End file.
